Climate resources for tourism development on the lake Baikal coast

The article considers conditions for formation and climate resources of the central ecological zone of the Baikal Natural Territory (CEZ BNT). The author identifies zones of strong, medium and weak influence of climate-forming effects of Lake Baikal's water mass and orography. To qualitatively evaluation of the recreational potential of the climate, the author systematizes most important indicators for recreation according to the volume of their impact. The application of the resource-evaluation approach to the peculiarities of the mesoclimate made it possible to differentiate the territory and present a cartoscheme of seasonal conditions for recreational activities. Conditions for year-around recreation are favourable only in coastal areas, including adjacent river valleys of the plateau Olkhinskoye and the southwest end of the lake. Outside the basin, this includes river valley bottoms and lower parts of windward slopes of the Primorsky ridge. Marked favorable conditions for winter recreation are characteristic for the southeast coast and windward slopes of Khamar-Daban, for summer recreation - the coast of Maloye More, Olkhon island, Tazheranskie steppes and reliably protected from the wind locations along the all western coast up to Priolhonie. The author demonstrates that in summer lower recreational potential on the southeastern coast and adjacent river valleys is related mainly to higher occurrence of cloudy weather, higher precipitation and number of days with thunderstorms, while on the west coast its limitations are related to regime features of the temperature and wind. Highly variable, pulsating wind regime here negatively affects human’s perception of temperature and contributes to reduce the favourable period for recreation.