Recreation characteristics of the green zone forests of the Zhytomyr city

Abstract

Recreation in forests is important for residents of cities, including Zhytomyr. The forests of the city’s green zone require a comprehensive assessment to regulate the recreational use of state and municipal forests. In order to analyse the recreational indicators of the forests of the green zone of Zhytomyr, a comparative analysis of forest management data of landscape mensuration was carried out and compared with the results of our own field research. To analyse the recreational indicators, the forest management database, materials of previous field studies, as well as electronic mapping materials and a geographic information system were used. According to the forest management data, the spatial structure of the forest park area is far from optimal due to the small share of open and semi-open landscape types. The existing functional zoning in most areas does not correspond to the actual recreational use of the territory. There are areas with intensive visits that are not classified as forest parks and do not have landscape mensuration data, although they have a high level of improvement. In terms of walkability, sustainability, aesthetic and integrated assessment, the forest park areas demonstrate mostly mediocre results. The recreational digression of the vast majority of sites is insignificant. Some plots have the necessary indicators for a high additional assessment. The results of the field surveys confirmed the unreliability of some recreational indicators determined by forest management. The largest discrepancy was noted in the determination of walkability, additional and recreational values, which are significantly underestimated. In the most visited areas, the actual indicators of recreational digression and aesthetic assessment are lower than those in the forest management materials. Refinement of the data on recreational characteristics of the forest park zone areas allows updating the information on landscape mensuration and developing a comprehensive functional zoning of the territory of suburban forests in Zhytomyr. The results of the study will help state and municipal forestry enterprises to optimize the recreational exploitation of forests within the green zone of the city, rationalize the use of natural resources for recreational purposes, while ensuring environmental sustainability