Abstract
The article addresses the problem of selected technical infrastructure elements (e.g., water supply, sewage, gas networks) in municipalities territorially connected with Polish national parks. Therefore, the research refers to the specific areas: both naturally valuable and attractive in terms of tourism. The time range of the research covers the years 2003–2018. The studied networks were characterized based on the statistical analysis using linear ordering methods; synthetic measures of development were applied. It allowed the ranking construction of the examined municipalities in terms of the development level of water supply, sewage, and gas networks. The results show that the period 2003–2018 was characterized by a development of the analyzed networks in the vast majority of municipalities. Thus, the level of anthropopressure caused by the presence of local community and tourists in municipalities showed a decline. It is worth emphasizing that the infrastructure investments are carried out comprehensively. Favoring investments in the development of any of the abovementioned networks was not observed.
Highlights
National parks represent a widely recognized spatial forms of nature conservation, which cover valuable natural areas [1]
It should be emphasized that the function of tourists in individual municipalities territorially connected with national parks has a different intensity [3] and in the case of parks it has to result from the nature conservation function [4]
An important nuance of the research on technical infrastructure is the fact that some national parks and the municipalities connected with them represent popular tourist destinations, and are affected by the phenomenon of mass tourism [22,23,24] and the related problems characteristic for Poland’s most popular places [25]
Summary
National parks represent a widely recognized spatial forms of nature conservation, which cover valuable natural areas [1]. There are 23 of national parks in Poland and their total area is only 315 thousand ha (1% of the country area) The values they offer make them interesting for the nature specific reasons and in terms of the development of economic, local, and regional systems. It is important to keep in mind that the value streams between the protected area and its surroundings are subject to an ongoing exchange process [5], the quality of the broadly approached municipal technical infrastructure has a huge impact on national parks. The long-term characteristics of technical infrastructure aimed at environmental protection (e.g., sewage, water supply networks) and gas network were adopted as the research purpose. The following research hypothesis was adopted: “In the municipalities territorially connected with national parks, the pursuit towards reducing anthropopressure through the development of water supply, sewage, and gas networks is observed”.
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