Ecological assessment of natural complexes in «Serednie Pobuzhzhia» regional landscape park: theory and practice

The article proposes a methodology for determining the ecological assessment of natural complexes in «Serednie Pobuzhzhia» regional landscape park (RLP) according to psychological, aesthetic and geographical and aesthetic criteria. The representative landscapes of the park, which covers an area of 2618.2 hectares and was established in 2009, are located within Tyvriv and Sutyska settlement territorial communities of Vinnytsia region. The park was created to preserve the integrity of the unique landscapes of the valley and water area of the Pivdennyi Buh river. The park is decorated with rapids on the Pivdennyi Buh river, which were formed in places where crystalline rocks of the Ukrainian shield come to the surface, often forming cascades and stretching for up to several kilometres. Some blocks of granite rise up to 1.5 m above the water, which forms the corresponding aesthetics of the landscape. The park is home to boreal, non-morphic and pontic vegetation, represented by rare, endemic and relict species. The Pivdennyi Buh river valley is of great importance for the conservation of biotic and landscape diversity and requires protection and rational use of its resources. One of the anthropogenic impacts on the park’s natural complexes is recreational pressure. Therefore, the authors established the maximum recreational load on the natural complexes of the studied park according to the distribution of landscape types — park, forest, non-forest. On the basis of the conducted research, it is argued that in order to preserve the representative and unique biotic and landscape diversity of the park in the structure of the Buzkyi longitudinal natural corridor of the national ecological network, it is necessary to introduce a set of measures, taking into account the recreational load. In order to preserve the representative biotic and landscape diversity in the structure of the ecological and Emerald networks, it is necessary to expand the area of «Serednie Pobuzhzhia» park and include «Nemyrivske Pobuzhzhia» regional landscape park with an area of 5,678 hectares, creating a single continuous national nature park.