For the purposes of this book, direct tourism impacts on the environment have been classified as follows:
impacts on geological exposures, minerals and fossils
impacts on soils
impacts on water resources
impacts on vegetation
impacts on animal life
impacts on sanitation
aesthetic impacts on the landscape
impacts on the cultural environment.
These impacts (which are actually manifestations of change) are dealt with below, one by one. But it should be remembered that the ecological effects of tourism activities rarely occur singly