The Natural Potential of Mountains in Bulgaria and Its Sustainable Use - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 60

connected subsequently with the determination of: the needs of the various anthro-
pogenic activities of the respective resource potential, the degree of its suitability
or favorableness, the character and strength of impact on it, the direction and extent
of its change and finally - the possibilities for optimizing its use with a view to its
preservation.
The evaluation of the needs of suitable conditions and resources for the differ-
ent anthropogenic activities is directed towards meeting the specific requirements
of each activity type with respect to particular quantitative and qualitative param-
eters of the resources and the environment, i.e. the evaluation is subordinate to
the so-called “subject-object relations,” the respective activity being implied as the
“subject.” In addition, parallel evaluation is made of the integral and partial poten-
tials - for example, if the landscape characteristics of all natural components are
important for the broadly developed mass forms of tourism, only a few relief char-
acteristics are sufficient for some specialized forms of tourism - rock structure and
slopes (for alpinism, ski sports, etc.).
The evaluation of the degree of suitability or favorableness of the resource poten-
tial and the environment is carried out in a differentiated manner according to partial
potentials, but also in an integral way, by considering in detail the basic properties
of the natural components, representing a special interest, and on their basis an inte-
gral assessment rating degree is attained for the territory. Rather often coefficients of
significance or weight are introduced for the most important assessment parameters
with the view of limiting the inevitable leveling of the integral assessments in the
synthesis of the partial ones. The boundary conditions, connected with the given nat-
ural component, or its basic property, should also be subjected to assessment anal-
ysis, and the degree of its suitability is determined on the basis of the ratio between
the positive and negative evaluations (Kantsebovskaya and Semenov, 1968 ).
The evaluation of the character and strength of the impact of the single types of
anthropogenic activity on the natural potential of the mountains is directly related to
the criteria for sustainability in the context of the requirement for balanced anthro-
pogenic loading in accordance with the “bearing capacity” (carrying capacity) of the
natural components and landscapes. The impact is realized on the one hand by the
“introduced” anthropogenic objects in the environment and on the other hand - by
their functioning according to their basic designation, as well as by pollution with
liquid, solid and gaseous substances. In this case it is important to know not only
their direct reflection on the used natural component or its property (relief - for con-
struction, water, wood, game, etc.) but also the character and strength of their mutual
effect during their continuous interaction and mutual penetration as various media
(rock - soil - air - water - biota), especially taking into account the multiplication
effect in the exchange of pollutants.
The assessment of the direction and extent of change of the environment and
the resources is a direct consequence of the impact and is subordinate to the prin-
ciples of sustainable development, including the natural potential preservation. It is
performed by determining the character of the occurring processes of degradation
during anthropogenically activated unfavorable natural processes and phenomena -
erosion, landslides, rock falls, damming up of river flows, etc., or anthropogenically
provoked - during construction, connected with slope cutting, excavations, forest