Evaluations of the recreational potential of reservoirs in design practice

Abstract

1. The constant increase in the extent of using reservoirs for recreation and sports, especially in regions of large urban agglomerations, predetermines the urgency and need for regarding recreation as a full-valued participant of a water-management complex and recreational regionalization and layout of artificial water bodies. 2. The proposed aggregate of expert evaluations of factors limiting recreational water use for the example of the Ivankovo reservoir shows the substantial inhomogeneity of natural and anthropogenic factors both with respect to different types of recreation and on various stretches within the same reservoir. The index of recreational water use on the Ivankovo reservoir varies within wide limits, from 0.12 to 0.91, which shows the need for a differential approach to the design and organization of measures on the recreational use of reservoirs, the natural-anthropogenic complexes and conditions of which compared with natural water objects are distinguished by a substantially greater diversity and inhomogeneity. 3. The use of grading point evaluations of the limiting factors of recreational water use, simple in their structure and calculation, makes it possible in design studies of measures on recreational use to obtain a realistic picture of the possible extent of development of recreation and sports of the population and to correctly plan the composition, sequence, and volume of appropriate measures. 4. The proposed methodological approaches to evaluating the recreational potential of natural complexes considerably facilitates the solution of a number of important problems occurring when designing the recreational use of water bodies: evaluation of the actual amount of natural resources suitable for recreational water use; establishment of the leading factors limiting the development of recreation; determination of the optimal structure of the recreational activity of the population in relation to the natural-economic conditions on the shore and water area and also in relation to the character and degree of intrarecreational conflicts; development of measures on recreational regionalization, layout, and construction of facilities for the aquaterritorial complexes of water bodies.