Landscape-recreational potential of the central ecological zone of the Baikal natural territory (within the boundaries of Irkutsk region)

The article considers territorial differentiation of recreational activities on a landscape basis within the boundaries of Baikal Natural Territory (Irkutsk Region). The authors create landscape-typological map in the scale of 1: 500 000 for these purposes. Landscapes are grouped by high-altitude zones, development conditions, features of mesorelief and vegetation in the explanatory notes. High landscape diversity has conditioned development a various types of tourism. The authors determine the importance of each type of landscapes for the tourism development, as well as their resistance to recreational loads. The article presents the results of an integral estimation of stability in qualitative categories on the basis of a combination of indicators of average and minimum component-wise stability, taking into account their importance in recreational action and the presence of zero values of component stability. The low-mountain landscapes of pine, larch-pine and cedar-larch forests, pine steppe forests, light coniferous and dark coniferous valleys, as well as arable land are characterized by the highest indicators of recreational stability. Goltsy and sub-goltsy landscapes, as well as dark coniferous, light coniferous and steppe landscapes, confined to steep slopes is characterized by low stability. The maps of the recreational potential of the territory and the stability of landscapes to the impact of tourism activities have been created by the method of landscape-interpretation mapping. Comparison of these maps will allow further planning of recreational loads in the central ecological zone of the Baikal Natural Territory (Irkutsk Region). The work was carried out within the framework of the research program of the V. B. Sochava Institute of Geography SB RAS with partial support of the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (No. 16-05-00902 and No. 17-05-00588) and the Russian Geographical Society (No. 17-05-41020).