Anthropogenic hazards to the Białka Valley natural environment

Opracowanie dotyczy zagrożeń środowiska przyrodniczego Doliny Białki wynikających z działalności człowieka. W artykule omówiono przemiany środowiska związane z regulacjami hydrotechnicznymi rzeki, wybieraniem materiału z jej koryta i pobieraniem z niej wody oraz zrzucaniem do Białki ścieków, a także wpływ zanieczyszczenia powietrza. Ponadto sporo uwagi poświęcono zagrożeniom funkcjonowania korytarza ekologicznego, jakim jest Dolina Białki.The Białka Valley natural environment is currently exposed to anthropogenic hazards. The main elements of this anthropopressure are: settlement, agriculture, other unproper economic activities and tourism growth. The river of Białka still has a natural, mountain character in most of its sections. But in the remaining ones the river is engineered, in order to protect villages along its course from floods. Considerable transformations of the discussed valley occur at Łysa Polana, where the river is a natural border between Poland and Slovakia. To keep the border in accordance with documents, after each change of the bed location, the former course of the Białka is restored. Moreover, at the Białka mouth there are two mines of river gravel used in construction. Also water is taken from the river. Effects of this action are the most negative in winter, when water is used also to make snow on ski slopes. The Kotelnica ski station takes 650 m3 per hour during the period of maximal demand for water. The Białka river is receives various pollution, from the villages nearby. In winter people burn refuse in their stoves, which make the aerosanitary conditions worse and worse. The Białka Valley links the Tatras with the Gorce Mts and the Pieniny Mts. This ecological corridor is important in the scale of the whole Polish Carpathians, but its functioning is nowadays at hazard. The anthropopressure should be reduced in this area. All human activity should be conducted according to the principles of sustainable development. (Translated by Zygmunt Górka

Antropogeniczne zagrożenia środowiska przyrodniczego Doliny Białki

Anthropogenic hazards to the Białka Valley natural environment The Białka Valley natural environment is currently exposed to anthropogenic hazards. The main elements of this anthropopressure are: settlement, agriculture, other unproper economic activities and tourism growth. The river of Białka still has a natural, mountain character in most of its sections. But in the remaining ones the river is engineered, in order to protect villages along its course from floods. Considerable transformations of the discussed valley occur at Łysa Polana, where the river is a natural border between Poland and Slovakia. To keep the border in accordance with documents, after each change of the bed location, the former course of the Białka is restored. Moreover, at the Białka mouth there are two mines of river gravel used in construction. Also water is taken from the river. Effects of this action are the most negative in winter, when water is used also to make snow on ski slopes. The Kotelnica ski station takes 650 m3 per hour during the period of maximal demand for water. The Białka river is receives various pollution, from the villages nearby. In winter people burn refuse in their stoves, which make the aerosanitary conditions worse and worse. The Białka Valley links the Tatras with the Gorce Mts and the Pieniny Mts. This ecological corridor is important in the scale of the whole Polish Carpathians, but its functioning is nowadays at hazard. The anthropopressure should be reduced in this area. All human activity should be conducted according to the principles of sustainable development. (Translated by Zygmunt Górka

The typology of natural ephemeral landscapes in the context of the preceding research

Autorzy podjęli problematykę krajobrazów efemerycznych pochodzenia naturalnego, które współtworzone są przez zjawiska przyrodnicze o dużej nieregularności i krótkotrwałości występowania. Celem opracowania było usystematyzowanie dotychczasowego stanu wiedzy w tym zakresie w oparciu o autorską typologię krajobrazów efemerycznych. z przeglądu literatury wynika, że stopień rozpoznania krajobrazów efemerycznych wciąż pozostaje niewystarczający. Skoncentrowanie badaczy na wybranych zjawiskach krótkotrwałych uniemożliwia kompleksowe spojrzenie na badany krajobraz. Tymczasem krajobrazy efemeryczne percypowane są całościowo i mogą stanowić ważną atrakcję turystyczną.Although the relations between landscape and certain human activities are well recognised in landscape ecology literature, main emphasis is put on stable landscape features. This article, by contrast, focuses on ephemeral landscapes which are defined as the ones consisted of phenomena and features of a changeable character (Brassley 1998). It can be assumed that the phenomena, even of same type, construct a different ephemeral landscape each time. However, despite their evanescence and irregular occurrence (Palang et al.2007), they still need to be investigated due to their significant role in perception of the whole landscape and its evaluation for different functions (Brassley 1998). The article also refers to substantial theoretical connotations of landscape ephemera and multi-sensory model of perception. The link can be easily recognised in tourism management because a complexity of several landscape ephemera’s features strongly influences visitor preferences of certain regions (Huang 2013). Due to stated selective and superficial recognition of the problem, authors’ main aim was to propose a novel typology of natural-caused landscape ephemera based on a detailed literature review. in the typology, the visually dominant genetic factor criterion was used. Therefore, there were distinguished landscape ephemera mainly connected with: (1) astronomical factors, (2) weather conditions, (3) endogenic, (4) geomorphologic, (5) hydrological processes, (6) biological and (7) joint ephemeral factors (tab. 1). The typology also reflects different economic and social roles of landscapes assigned to particular groups – e.g. astronomical phenomena, due to their relatively higher predictability, can constitute a core of specific tourist products, while endogenic ones are often perceived as a danger and disruption of a trip ( Yang et al. 2008). The authors confirmed considerable inequality in a recognition degree of landscape ephemera of different types. Symptomatically, there are only a few works which present an issue in a complex way. The stress is often put on the short-lasting phenomena itself while there are some durable processes (e.g. aeolian) which can also subconstruct certain landscape ephemera (e.g. ripplemarks). Undoubtedly, there are still many cognitive gaps connected with presented subject which are strongly needed to be filled because of its potential applied role. An influence of landscape ephemera on creating local identity and resident’s embeddedness is of an example

The ephemeral landscape of sunrise as a tourists’ motivating factor for night-time ascents of Babia Góra

The aim of the study was to verify changeability of the sunrise ephemeral landscape observed from the peak of Babia Góra and to confirm that it acted as a tourist attraction. Every sunrise during summer holidays weekends was observed from Babia Góra peak and described. The data about the weather conditions and number of tourists were collected. Survey interviews with randomly selected tourists who had seen sunrise (269) were conducted in order to obtain information about their motivations for night-time ascents of Babia Góra. The changeability of the ephemeral landscape of sunrise was proved. Most of the tourists who have visited Babia Góra at dawn (84%) agreed that the will to observe the sunrise was one of motivating factors for them, however they pointed out many others, as well