Status and outlook of hiking trails in the central part of the Low Tatra Mountains in Slovakia between 1980–1981 and 2013–2014

Hrnčiarová, T.; Kenderessy, Pavol; Špulerová, Jana; Vlachovičová, Miriam; Piscová, Veronika; Dobrovodská, Marta

doi:10.1007/s11629-017-4690-3

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Erosion, trampling, littering or vandalism are typical problems reported from many protected areas, not only related to sandstones (particularly many works relating to these problems in Central Europe concern the Tatra Mountains, Pieniny and the Giant Mountains-see e.g. (Buchwał and Fidelus 2008;Hrnčiarová et al 2018;Kasprzak 2005Kasprzak , 2006Kolasińska et al 2015)). Rogowski wrote about these problems in the context of the Table Mountains, referring mainly to the monitoring system of tourist traffic (Rogowski 2017(Rogowski , 2018a(Rogowski , 2018b.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Way to the Rocks—Changes of Networks of Hiking Trails in Chosen Sandstone Landscapes in Poland and the Czech Republic in the Period of Political Transformation

Kołodziejczyk

2020

Geoheritage

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The political transformation taking place in Central European countries at the turn of 1980s and 1990s influenced, among other aspects, the methods of nature protection and making it available for tourism. The changes taking place at that time have been traced in the article on the example of three sandstone landscapes, which belong to the most popular geotouristic attractions of the Czech Republic and Poland: Prachov Rocks Nature Reserve with adjacent fragments of the Bohemian Paradise Protected Landscape Area, Adršpach-Teplice Rocks National Nature Reserve and the Table Mountains National Park. These changes were analysed on the basis of transformations of the networks of hiking trails and development of other tourism facilities within the boundaries of the protected areas. Analysis covers the entire period from the end of communism (1980s) up to present days. According to the study, in the case of all analysed protected areas, the systemic transformation in Central Europe played an important role as a factor affecting the network of hiking trails. In each case, however, local factors were also important. The biggest changes occurred in the Adršpach-Teplice Rocks and the Table Mountains. In the first case, the number and distribution of visitors needed to be controlled, leading to modification of route network. The main reason of its significant reduction was to separate paid routes from those not charged. In the Table Mountains, the network was substantially developed as a consequence of the establishment of a national park there and the political changes at the turn of twentieth and twenty-first centuries which opened the border zone and forced the marking of new tourist trails. In the Prachov Rocks, the existing layout of hiking trails has been largely kept unchanged because the continuous intensive tourist traffic did not allow any reductions, even if these would help to protect the environment. On the other hand, the network was really well developed, that it did not require further growth. Today's networks of tourist trails in the Prachov Rocks and some parts of the Table Mountains seem too developed, taking into account the protective regime of both areas. In terms of interpretation of geoheritage, the most extensive and targeted offer can be found in the Table Mountains National Park. Referring to the methods used, the graph theory cannot be applied easily to tourist trails networks, especially when a dissected landscape is analysed. A simple but very helpful indicator illustrating the development of the network is the density of tourist trails per square kilometre.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Way to the Rocks—Changes of Networks of Hiking Trails in Chosen Sandstone Landscapes in Poland and the Czech Republic in the Period of Political Transformation

Kołodziejczyk

2020

Geoheritage

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“…Yet, different results were obtained for the alpine zone of the Niżne Tatry Range in Slovakia, where only 33% of the total length of tourist footpaths was affected by degradation in the period 1980 -2014. No significant changes were noted along the remaining 67% (Hrnčiarová et al 2018). Research has also shown that rapid development of tourist infrastructure and increases in tourist traffic in recent years may have contributed to an increase in relief change.…”

Section: Footpath Identifiermentioning

confidence: 96%

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

et al. 2021

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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.

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“…Plant ecosystems are endangered by trampling, plucking rare plants, storing waste, etc. For fauna, the main stress factors are noise, disturbance, destruction of nesting sites and poaching [75]. IN particular, areas of the Little Carpathians Protected Landscape Area (PLA) and the Trnavské rybníky Protected Area (PA) are threatened by recreation.…”

Section: (F) Conflicts Between Nature Conservation and Recreational Rmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrative Assessment of Land Use Conflicts

2018

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Changes in land use are reflected primary in changes of land cover, but subsequently cause conflict of interest of sectors and are the main initiation of many environmental problems. The basic tool for sustainable utilization of the landscape is integrated landscape management, which, in our understanding, is the environmentally biased harmonization of tools which regulate the spatial organization and functional utilization of the landscape to avoid the conflicts of interest of sectors. "Integrated" in this case means the systematic assessment of the interests of all relevant sectors from the environmental point of view. The scientific base of this approach is the understanding of the landscape as a geosystem, and, in particular, the proper interpretation of the mutual relations of primary, secondary and tertiary landscape structures and their role in the assessment of the conflicts of interest. This paper presents a theoretical and methodical base for the integrated approach to the assessment of the conflicts of interest of the sectors in the landscape. The theoretical-methodical base was applied to the model territory of the Trnava district (south-west Slovakia). Mutual conflicts of interest of endangering and endangered sectors cause diverse problems, which were ranked in three basic groups as: problems of endangering of the ecological stability of the landscape (including endangering of biodiversity and nature conservation areas); problems of endangering of natural resources (in particular forests, soils, waters); and, problems of endangering the immediate human environment (stress factors in residential and recreational areas). The result is the identification and analysis of the conflicts of interest in the territory and their projection to a map. This research should be followed by implementation of procedures of ecologically optimal spatial organization and utilization of the territory for regular spatial planning processes. of the GMTs are not yet completely known, as many have begun to manifest themselves in recent years. The relationships between individual GMTs raise a large number of questions, and there are still many deficiencies in the knowledge of their impact on the landscape.Several of these environmental global megatrends are initiated by inappropriate land use. According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the Unated Nations (FAO) information, up to 60% of the world's ecosystems are degraded and exploited unsustainably [5]. In the EU, only 17% of habitats and species and 11% of key ecosystems protected by European legislation show a favorable status [4][5][6]. This is despite the adoption of measures in 2001 to combat biodiversity loss. All scenarios of global and regional assessments show that biodiversity loss, degradation of ecosystems and threats to environmental conditions will continue or even accelerate [7]. Human activities, global population growth and changing consumption patterns are key factors responsible for this growing environmental burden, which primarily becomes evident ...

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Status and outlook of hiking trails in the central part of the Low Tatra Mountains in Slovakia between 1980–1981 and 2013–2014

Cited by 8 publications

References 44 publications

The Way to the Rocks—Changes of Networks of Hiking Trails in Chosen Sandstone Landscapes in Poland and the Czech Republic in the Period of Political Transformation

The Way to the Rocks—Changes of Networks of Hiking Trails in Chosen Sandstone Landscapes in Poland and the Czech Republic in the Period of Political Transformation

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

Integrative Assessment of Land Use Conflicts

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