Humanitarian Environmental Magazine. Vol. 1. Is. 1. 1999. P. 16-22.

ESTIMATION OF AESTHETICAL VALUES OF NATURAL LANDSCAPES OF UKRAINE WITH A VIEW TO MAKE THEM PROTECTED AREAS: GENERAL THESES AND FIRST EXPERIENCE

K.N. Gorb, A.A. Krymtsov, E.V. Bilyavskaya, B.N. Stepanova

Traditionally the aim of aesthetical estimation of a landscape is to find out the possibility of its recreational usage. But estimation of natural formations with an aim of awarding them some protected status only due to their aesthetical values is an unexplored direction. That is why we will try to characterize its scheme in general. Having studied different approaches to estimation of a territory for concrete methods of usage we designed a general scheme of estimation of aesthetical values of natural landscapes with an aim of making them protected areas.

I. Preparatory stage

Phase of basing the actuality and aims of the work.
For basing the actuality of the work we referred to the opinion of botanists, zoologists, geologists, to the Red Book. The final purpose of the work was to create a draft of an instructive-methodical document that would show the mechanism of identifying the aptitude of a natural complex for protection due to its aesthetical value.
Phase of forming the territory base for shooting the landscapes.
Several varieties of natural landscapes of different kinds (mountainous and valley marine shore; valley of a big river; "classic" steppe, etc.) were selected for shooting. Ukrainian protected areas of different categories served the territory base for shooting.
Phase of basing the methods of estimation.

II. Organizational stage.

III. Stage of information collection.

Representational shooting and preliminary systematization of landscapes.
Includes working in field environment and creating a photograph album for the future estimation.

IV. Stage of estimation.

Phase of estimation of aesthetical properties of the landscapes.
Includes the following: formal estimation procedure; mass inquiry; psychological expertise; artistic expertise.

V. Stage of synthesizing.

Phase of bringing the massifs of the results of the estimation to a form suitable for comparative analysis using special methods and rules of mathematical statistics.
Phase of calculation of averages on four variants of estimation values for each landscape and getting the final integral synthetic values of aesthetical merit.
Phase of typology of the landscapes for their "protective aesthetical" value or for their importance for protection due to their aesthetical properties.

VI. Design stage

Phase of development and design of visual materials, when maps, schemes, charts, diagrams, prepared on the previous stage, are being made.

VII. Conclusive stage

Phase of writing the report and developing recommendations for protection of natural landscapes having aesthetical value.

We can propose the following scheme (relative so far): 1) landscapes, whose aesthetical estimation is less then 40% from the maximum value in the country, should not be protected due to their aesthetical values; 2) if a landscape has aesthetical estimation from 40% to 60% there should be made protected areas in it, reserves and monuments of local significance; 3) in the landscapes with aesthetical estimation from 60% to 75% there should be made reserves and natural monuments of the state significance and regional landscape parks; 4) landscapes with aesthetical estimation from 75% to 90% should become national nature parks; 5) for the landscapes with aesthetical estimation of more than 90% we may introduce a special category of nature protection fund that can be called "landscape natural zapovednik" (LNZ). The main purpose of LNZ can be protection and humane usage of the beauty of nature.