The Natural Potential of Mountains in Bulgaria and Its Sustainable Use - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 42

The total, integral natural potential is subdivided into so-called partial potentials
which are specific to the corresponding economic activity for which purposes they
are intended, for instance: industry-, mineral-, water-, forest-, energy-potential,
building potential, recreational potential, etc. Especially important is the assess-
ment of aspects of the partial potentials that are related to the state and tendencies
of change of natural components' characteristics under conditions of anthropogenic
pressure, such as: self-clearing, regeneration, changeability, steadiness, etc. At the
same time attention is paid to revealing degradation processes provoked by anthro-
pogenic activity, by so-called physiognomic landscape components, grounding on
the specific mountain landscape spectra typical for large morphographic units. On
the basis of these analyses a concept is discussed for optimization of interactions
in the system “Nature-Society-Economy,” with accents placed on priority eco-
nomic activities with emphasis on environmental protection, in mountain territories,
according to the principals of sustainable development.

Keywords Nature potential · Bulgarian mountains · Assessment of the: relief,

·

climate, waters, soils, vegetation, animals, landscapes Sustainable usage of

mountin resources

5.1 Former Studies on the Natural Potential of the Mountains
in Bulgaria

The natural potential of the mountains in Bulgaria was the aim and subject of a
specialized complex inter-disciplinary investigation that took place in the 1980s
involving different institutes from the natural sciences group of the Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences (BAS) under the leadership of the Institute of Geography.
It was realized within the framework of the national plan for fundamental research
in Bulgaria in the scientific sphere “Scientific bases of preserving and reproducing
the environment,” including in total 14 scientific problems (at governmental level).
The results of this investigation were summarized in one of the two volumes of
the monograph “Natural and Economic Potential of the Mountains in Bulgaria,”
volume I, “Nature and Resources.”
A specialized study aimed at determining the boundaries of the mountain regions
in connection with the preparation of a law for these regions was carried out in the
mid-1990s also in the Institute of Geography of BAS and the results were presented
in several scientific publications, one of them being of fundamental principle-
methodological and information-empirical importance - “The Mountain Regions
in the Legislation Policy of Bulgaria” (Geshev et al., 1995 ). The morphometric
characteristics of relief were used as defining criteria: altitude - above 600 m, and
for the low mountains (Fore-Balkan, East Stara Planina, Strandzha, Sakar, Sarnena
Gora and East Rhodopes) - above 250-300 m; depth of dismemberment - above
200 m/km 2 ; slope inclination - above 12 ◦ , etc. On the basis of this empirical work,
together with NCTDRP (the former National Centre on Territorial Development and
Residential Policy of the Ministry of Regional Development and Public Works),
a methodological approach was substantiated for classification of the mountain