The Natural Potential of Mountains in Bulgaria and Its Sustainable Use - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 44

investigations. A substantial contribution in this respect was made by publications
concerning the trans-boundary communication systems with neighboring countries
(Nikolov and Yordanova, 1996 ) and the broader range of the Black Sea region with
an accent on transport corridor VIII (Terziiska and Tarakanov, 2000 ).
The various types of natural potential (mineral / raw material, forest, water, etc.)
in every territory, and especially those with a mountain character, are a regular
consequence of the conditions of its formation in connection first of all with the
location in spatial-territorial structures with a broader range. It bears the specific
features of common morphotectonic evolution of the foundation and common plan-
etary zonal determined belt peculiarities of the dynamic components. The individual
specificity of this general background is related to the local manifestation of regu-
larities of the so-called exchange of substances, energy and information between
the basic natural components during their continuous interaction and mutual pen-
etration (e.g. water/air - in rocks, soils, biota, etc.). In the context of the above
mentioned, the mountain territories in Bulgaria, bearing in mind the position of
the country in the South European mountain space, represent a part of two first-
order mountain macrostructures entering the territory - large parts of the strongly
faulted Macedonian-Thracian massif and the whole fold-chain Balkanide system
of the Alpine orogen. From the hydroclimatic aspect, it is situated in the tran-
sition zone between the moderate and the sub-tropical belt - from the typically
expressed moderate-continental features in the Stara Planina Mt. part, through the
transition-continental features in the East Stara Planina, Kraishte-Sredna Gora and
Rila-West Rhodopes part to the typically expressed continental-Mediterranean fea-
tures in the Pirin-Slavyanka part, the East Rhodopes, Sakar and Strandzha. This
determines also the expressed transition features of the soil-vegetation characteris-
tics - between the typical Middle European and the typical South European ones.
With increasing altitude the hydroclimatic differences are gradually smoothed out
but the soil-vegetation differences increase and corresponding height zones are
formed. In turn, this is important for the creation of the typical height-variable
mountain altitude spectra of landscape belts, with their intrinsic characteristics of
natural resource potential and specific conditions for their reclamation.
When treating the problem of evaluating the natural potential, renewable
resources are usually implied, which are related first of all to the dynamic natural
components (climate, water, biota, and partially - soil). But evaluation is also made
of the relief as a natural foundation of the geographic space (Mishev and Vaptsarov,
1996 ). Such an approach was adopted in the monograph “The Natural and Economic
Potential of the Mountains in Bulgaria,” vol. I, “Nature and Resources.”
5.2 Assessment of Natural Potential by Components for Various
Economic Purposes
5.2.1 Assessment of Relief
Relief, representing the basic material surface (foundation) of the territory, is
assumed to be the basic natural component. It forms on the one hand its