Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and Natural Resources 2020 number 1

The issues related to efficiency of the use of the recreation potential and the regulation of the recreational load on the ter ritory of the nature parks of Volgograd oblast in established ecological routes are examined. For the analysis the Shcherbakovskii, Donskoi and El’tonskii Nature Parks are used their location on the territory of the region makes it possible to cover the entire spectrum of zonal steppe landscapes, including their different variations. The information basis for the analysis included data on the technical parameters of the routes implemented by selected nature parks and on congestion of the routes during the three seasons in the period 2015-2017. Estimates were made of the physical current capacity, maximum real capacity and actual capacity of the tourist routes and ecological trails. Our calculation implies a sequential updating of the value of effective current capacity on the basis of corrective parameters taking into account the actual conditions for the functioning of specially protected natural areas at the present time. Results of calculations show a consistent decrease of the values of recreation capacity in the «physical current capacity - maximum real capacity - actual capacity» line for most routes. The resulting pattern indicates a low level of load in implementing the route-based recreation and allows to suggest measures to improve its efficiency. The causes for the low efficiency in the use of the recreation potential of ecological and tourist routes for the nature parks of Volgograd oblast are identified.