Degradation of a protected mountain area by tourist traffic: case study of the Tatra National Park, Poland

Abstract

Mountain protected areas are characterized by high biodiversity, which makes it a great challenge for managers to maintain a balance between their use and the stability of natural ecosystems. Maintaining that balance is particularly difficult in areas with high tourism pressure. The expected volume of tourist traffic should be considered at the planning stage of the tourist infrastructure development process. Insufficient capacity of tourist infrastructure can lead to environmental degradation, which is hard, or at times impossible, to repair. In our research, we identified patterns of tourist footpath and road functioning in an environmentally protected area with high volumes of tourist traffic. Data from geomorphologic mapping was analyzed in order to identify tourist footpath and road structures in the Tatra National Park (TNP). Fieldwork was conducted in several stages between 1995 and 2019. Orthophotomaps from the years 1977, 2009, 2017 and 2019 were used to identify and compare degraded zones along selected tourist footpaths. Degraded zones were defined as areas surrounding a footpath or tourist road with a mean width larger than or equal to 10 meters, with heavily damaged or completely removed vegetation and exposed, weathered cover, where geomorphic processes that would not take place under normal conditions are readily observable. The examined tourist footpaths and roads vary in terms of their morphometric parameters. Research has shown important differences between mean and maximum footpath width as well as maximum incision depth for the forest zone versus the subalpine and alpine zones. A lack of differences in these parameters was noted between the alpine and subalpine zones. Research has shown that an increase in the surface area of degraded zones found adjacent to tourist footpaths occurred in all the studied geo-ecological zones in the study period. However, the largest increase occurred atop wide ridgelines found in the alpine zone. Degraded zones may be an indication of exceeding the tourist carrying capacity of a mountain tourist area. Mass tourism in TNP contributes to the formation of degraded zones adjacent to footpaths, whose continuous evolution may lead to irreversible changes in local relief.

Servicios ecosistémicos en áreas de montaña: beneficios y amenazas

“…This has been observed in the Alps (e.g. ; Orsi et al, 2020), Pyrenees (e.g., Badoque et al, 2017), Himalayas (e.g., Yang et al, 2021), Tatra mountains (Fidelus-Orzechowska et al, 2021), to mention some. For instance, Skiing resorts development has a detrimental impact on soil properties, vegetation distribution, biodiversity (Hudek et al, 2020), geomorphological features (Wrońska-Wałach et al, 2019) and wildlife (Stott et al, 2019).…”

Change Patterns between 1993 and 2023 and Effects of COVID-19 on Tourist Traffic in Tatra National Park (Poland)

“…The unique nature of mountain areas is associated with high levels of morphogenetic activity especially in areas devoid of vegetation or characterized by patchy vegetation. In the protected areas, those areas can form and develop along tourist trails and roads used by tourists, areas near ski trails, and on forest roads [2,11,12]. Human impact in such areas is intense and leads to the triggering or acceleration of natural processes, which then leads to the formation of a variety of morphodynamic zones on slopes [4,[11][12][13][14].…”

“…Hiking tourism is one of the most basic forms of human impact on the natural environment in mountain areas. Tourist traffic can trigger certain environmental processes that may lead to the emergence of large degradation zones across slopes [11][12][13][14].…”

The influence of recreational load on the anti-erosion properties of the soils of park stands

“…Tourist activity affects the reduction of adaptation of vegetation to anthropogenic loads and increases its vulnerability [3]. An increase in degraded zones is observed in areas adjacent to tourist hiking tests [4]. S.V.…”