Enhancement and Preservation of Tufa Geosites in the Baishuitai Region, Yunnan Province, Southwest China

The Baishuitai tufa scenic spot is a huge cold spring carbonate deposits in Yunna Province, SW China. It is the birthplace of culture and Dongba religion of the Naxi ethnic minority. Around the Baishuitai tufa, the Naxi ethnic minority has unique culture and lifestyle, which integrated with the tufa providing a geotourism resource in this area. At present, the Baishuitai tufa scenic spot has been rated as AAA-level national tourist attractions. Many studies on depositional facies of carbonate rocks, paleoclimate and paleoenvironment reconstruction have been carried out based the tufa. However, there is lack of reports on landscape introduction, geoheritage conditions and role in development of ethnic minority areas. In this study, the drone remote sensing imagery and ground surveys have been carried to detailed introduce the tufa formation and landscape types. There are tufa platforms, dams, pools, algae banks, reconstruction dams and other kinds of landscapes in the scenic spot. The tufa has very high scientific value and high didactic and tourism values, but faces the anthropogenic risk of degradation. From the drone imagery, distribution and maintaining conditions of the tufa can be clearly observed. This provides a technology support for protection of similar geoheritage. Combining the management methods and remote sensing technology, the construction of Baishuitai tufa will play an important role in the development of ethnic minority areas.