Evaluating the Recreation Potential of the National Park “Valdayskiy” (Novgorodskaya Oblast, Russia)

The National Park “Valdayskiy” (the Park) was established to preserve the unique lake-forest complex of the Valday upland and to create conditions for the development of organized recreation on this territory. Incomparable beautiful views of different landscapes attracthere thousands of tourists from various Russian regions.The greater number of them prefers lakeshores for camping,so special attention in the research was paid tothe studyofriparian and shallow water vegetation of lakesin zones with different recreation pressureto establish the patterns of vegetation digression.The materials of our observations are supplemented with data on the attendance of tourist sites collected by the Park staff.The region recreation capacities were studied on the base of bioclimatic indices (Bodman’s indices and subjective temperature).It was revealed that only for the period of 1 month (mid-July to mid-August), there is a  massive influx of tourists and intensive use of recreation sites on the lakeshores.This leads to degradation of riparian forest and meadow vegetation; destruction of the protective (buffer) zone of aquatic vegetation, erosion of the banks near camps, pollution of shallow water by sewage and garbage. Thus, irregular recreation pressure on water bodies leads to local degradation of natural complexes and eventually to lowering the aesthetic value of riparian landscapes. But such factors as humid (moderate) continental climate with a prolonged cold winter and high relative air humidity throughout the year reduce the period of a  strong recreation pressure, and the complicated accessibility of many lakeshores reduce the negative impact of recreation and delay the destruction of natural vegetation. Evaluation of the bioclimatic indices allows Valday to be attributed to regions with a  lack of thermal resources, it is preferable to develop here dynamic types of recreation activities practically all over the year. For soft recreation activity the Valday upland are available with limitation from 7 to 8 months in a  year and without limitation nearly 1 month in a  year. For nature conservation in the Park it is necessary to organize monitoring of lakeshore’s complexes, control of recreation use, determine pressure of tourist traffic, normalizing and differentiating this pressure by the types of possible use and conservation regime.

1. Belonovskaya E.A., Krenke A.N., Tishkov A.A., Tsarevskaya N.G. Natural and anthropogenic fragmentation of vegetation cover in Valday lake area. Izv. Akad. Nauk., Ser. Geogr., 2014, no. 5, pp. 67–82. (In Russ.).

2. Belonovskaya E.A., Tishkov A.A., Tsarevskaya N.G. On the creation of a database on the current state of vegetation and aquatic environment of the lakes of the Valdai National Park. In Izuch. i okhrana prir. i istoricheskogo naslediya Valdaiskoi vozvyshennosti i sopredel'nykh regionov: Mater. mezhreg. nauchn.-prakt. konf., posvyashchennoi 25-letiyu Natsional'nogo parka “Valdaiskii”, g. Valdai, 24-25 aprelya 2015 g. [Study and Protection of the Natural and Historical Heritage of the Valdai Hills and Adjacent Regions: Proc. Interregional Sci.-pract. Conf., Dedicated to the Valdaysky National Park’s 25th Anniversary, Valday, April 24–25, 2015]. Vyshny Volochyok, 2015, pp. 158–161. (In Russ.).

3. Belonovskaya E.A., Tishkov A.A., Tsarevskaya N.G. Meadows in the system of conservation of traditional agricultural landscape of the Valdai national Park (the Novgorod Region). Probl. Reg. Ekol., 2016, no. 4, pp. 112–121. (In Russ.).

4. Belonovskaya E.A., Tsarevskaya N.G., Tishkov A.A. Diversity of macrophytos communities in the Valdaysky national park. Samarskaya Luka: Probl. Region. i Global'noi Ekol., 2017, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. 173–183. (In Russ.).

5. Belonovskaya E.A., Tishkov A.A., Tsarevskaya N.G. Conservation of water macrophytos ecosystems in the Valdaysky national park. In Sovremennoe landshaftno-ekol. sostoyanie i probl. optimizatsii prir. sredy regionov. Mater. XIII Mezhd. landshaftnoi konf., posvyashchennoi stoletiyu so dnya rozhdeniya F.N. Mil'kova [Modern Landscape-Ecol. State and Probl. of Optimization of the Natur. Environ. of the Regions. Proc. XIII Int. Landscape Conf., Dedicated to the 100-year Anniv. of the Birth of F.N. Milkov]. Voronezh: Istoki Publ., 2018, vol. 1, pp. 34–35. (In Russ.).

6. Bobrov A.A. Flora and vegetation of reservoirs of the Upper Volga region. Extended Abstract of Cand. Sci. (Biol.) Dissertation. St. Petersburg, 1999. 24 p.

7. Vinogradova V.V. Natural and bioclimatic life conditions of the population of the Murmansk Oblast. Izv. Akad. Nauk., Ser. Geogr., 2015, no. 6, pp. 90–99. (In Russ.).

8. Vinogradova V.V., Zolotokrylin A.N., Krenke A.N. Regionalization of the territory of Russian Federation in accordance of natural and climate conditions. Izv. Akad. Nauk., Ser. Geogr., 2008, no. 5, pp. 106–117. (In Russ.).

9. Geomorfologiya i chetvertichnye otlozheniya Severo-Zapada evropeiskoi chasti SSSR (Leningradskaya, Pskovskaya i Novgorodskaya oblasti) [Geomorphology and Quaternary Deposits of the North-West of the European Part of the USSR (Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod Regions)]. Leningrad: Nauka Publ., 1969. 256 p.

10. Ershov I.Yu. Syntaxonomic diversity of aquatic vegetation of the lakes of the Valdai Hills. Botanicheskii Zh., 1996, vol. 81, no. 10, pp. 32–37. (In Russ.).

11. Ershov I.Yu. Fitotsenosistemy ozer Valdaiskoi vozvyshennosti [Phytocoenosystems of the Lakes of the Valday Hills]. Rybinsk, 2002. 136 p.

12. Zolotokrylin A.N., Krenke A.N., Vinogradova V.V. Raionirovanie Rossii po prirodnym usloviyam zhizni naseleniya [Regionalization of Russia According to the Natural Living Conditions of the Population]. Moscow: Geos Publ., 2012. 156 p.

13. Katanskaya V.M. Vysshaya vodnaya rastitel'nost' kontinental'nykh vodoemov SSSR. Metody izucheniya [Higher Aquatic Vegetation of Continental Waters of the USSR. Methods of Study]. Moscow, Leningrad: Nauka Publ., 1981. 187 p.

14. Klimanov V.A., Kozharinov A.V., Tishkov A.A. Paleoecological reconstructions of vegetation and climate dynamics in the Valdai Lake area in the Late Glacial during the Holocene. In Tr. natsional'nogo parka “Valdaiskii”: yubil. sb. k 20-letiyu Valdaiskogo natsional'nogo parka [Proc. of the Valdaysky National Park: 20-year Anniv. Book]. St. Petersburg, 2010, no. 1, pp. 254–261. (In Russ.).

15. Morozova O.V., Tsarevskaya N.G., Belonovskaya E.A. The vascular plants of the Valday national park. In Flora i fauna natsional'nykh parkov [Flora and Fauna of the National Parks]. Novikov V.S., Ed. Moscow: Komissiya Akad. Nauk po Sokhraneniyu Biol. Raznoobraziya i Inst. Probl. Ekol. Evol. Akad. Nauk, 2010, vol. 7. 95 p.

16. Nedogarko I.V., Kuznetsova Yu.N., Reshetnikov F.Yu. Formation of the monitoring system of the lakes of the Valdaysky National Park. In Tr. natsional'nogo parka “Valdaiskii”: yubil. sb. k 20-letiyu Valdaiskogo natsional'nogo parka [Proc. of the Valdaysky National Park: 20-year Anniv. Book]. St. Petersburg, 2010, no. 1, pp.114–131. (In Russ.).

17. Nedogarko I.V. Coastal areas of the lakes of the Valdaysky National Park and problems of their use. In Polevoi sezon – 2011: Issled. i prirodookhrannye deistviya na osobookhranyaemykh prir. territoriyakh Novgorodskoi oblasti: Mater. 2-i nauch.-prakt. konf., g. Valday, 18-19 noyabrya 2011 g. [Field Work, Season of 2011: Research and Environ. Actions on the Protected Territories of the Novgorod Region: Proc. 2nd Sci.-pract. Conf., Valday, Nov. 18–19, 2011]. Velikiy Novgorod: Natsional'nyi Park Valdaiskii, Direktsiya po Uprav. OOPT, 2012, pp. 83–86. (In Russ.).

18. Papchenkov V.G. Rastitel'nyi pokrov vodoemov i vodotokov Srednego Povolzh'ya. [Vegetative Cover of Reservoirs and Watercourses of the Middle Volga Region]. Yaroslavl: TsMP MUBiNT, 2001. 214 p.

19. Tishkov A.A., Belonovskaya E.A., Tsarevskaya N.G. Ecosystem services of the Valdaysky National Park: contribution to the ecological condition of the Upper Volga region. In Ekologicheskie problemy basseinov krupnykh rek – Mat. mezhd. konf., priurochennoi k 35-letiyu Inst. ekol. Volzhskogo basseina RAN i 65-letiyu Kuibyshevskoi biostantsii [Ecological Problems of Large Rivers. Proc. Сonf., dedicated to the 35th Anniv. of the Inst. of the Volga Basin Ecol. Akad. Nauk and to the 65th Anniv. of the Kuybyshev Biostation]. Rozenberg G.S., Saksonov S.V., Eds. Tolyatti, 2018, pp. 293–295. (In Russ.).

20. Fedorova T.G. Klimat goroda Valdaya [Climate of the Valday City]. Leningrad: Gidrometeoizdat Publ., 1972. 34 p.

21. Tsarevskaya N.G., Belonovskaya E.A. The European priority vascular plants of the Valday National park. In Geogr. osnovy formirovaniya ekol. setei v Severnoi Evrazii. Mat. 6-i mezhd. nauchn. konf. (Tver', 8–10 noyabrya, 2016 g.) [Geographical Basis of the Ecological Networks Formation in the Northern Eurasia. Proc. 6th Int. Sci. Conf. (Tver’, Nov. 8–10, 2016)]. Belonovskaya E.A., Sobolev N.A., Eds. Moscow: Inst. Geogr. Akad. Nauk, 2016, vol. 6, pp. 98–102. (In Russ.).

22. BioKlima – Universal tool for bioclimatic and thermophysiological studies. Version 2.5. Available at: https://www.igipz.pan.pl/bioklima.html (accessed: 30.05.2019).

23. Blazejczyk K. Bio-thermal features of the climate of Poland. Przeglаd Geograficzny, 2003, vol. 75, no. 4, pp. 525–543. (In Pol.).

24. Blazejczyk K. Weather recreation index for Europe. Annalen der Meteorologie. 17th Int. Congress of Biometeorology ICB, 2005, vol. 41, no. 2, pp. 604–607.

25. Blazejczyk K. New indices to assess thermal risks outdoors. In Proc. 11th Int. Conf. on Environ. Ergonomics. Ystat, Sweden, 2005, pp. 222–225.