Problemy oceny walorów przyrodniczych dla turystyki i rekreacji na obszarze Nizin Środkowopolskich

Abstract

To evaluate the attractiveness of natural environment for tourism and recreation various methods are applied and, in fact there is no method, which could be globally used and accepted. The choice of methods is strictly connected to the scale of elaboration. For review scales evaluation criteria are very general, while for elaborations in big scales criteria are more detailed. The evaluation also depends on the purpose of elaboration. For recreational tourism (mass tourism) the following features of the environment are considered to be attractive: relief of the area (variety of the lay of the land), surface waters and forest associations. Detailed criteria are needed while evaluating usefulness and attractiveness for adventure tourism .The method of point land classification, consisting in distributing numerical quantity to a particular feature or its intensity, enables to evaluate both its measurable and non-measurable features. One of crucial problems is choosing the correct basic field. The evaluation can be carried out within fields, geometrical (square projection), administrative units, unranked natural units (geocomplexes) and ranked spatial units (ranges, types of terrain, mikrochora, etc.). Polish geographical literature lacks elaborations for the area of plains in Central Poland, thus there are no examples of the choice of evaluations matching these regions. One cannot use evaluation of mountainous, seaside or lake regions since their qualities are definitely different. Older glacial regions considered globally as less attractive for tourism and recreation, have only few elaborations evaluating qualities of natural environment. The present article provides examples of criteria and evaluations applicable for valorisation of the Łódź region.