Trail Accessibility as a Tool for Sustainable Management of Protected Areas: Case Study Ceahlău National Park, Romania

AbstractAccessibility is an indicator that involves two components: the place - with its morphological and morphometric features -, and man - who wants to reach that place. The relief accessibility map is a useful tool both for tourists and national park managers. Sustainable management in a park and planning involves the opening of new hiking trails which must take into account the relief accessibility, internal zoning, land use and the presence of tourist interest objectives. In this study we produced a map of relief accessibility for Ceahlău National Park (CNP) in Romania using two indicators: the slope and the land use. The model integrates both primary data and secondary data resulted from the reclassification operations. From the intersection of these secondary data in a transition matrix we have established five types of accessibility levels that are represented for the entire park and trails in the CNP. Of the total area of the park - which is located in Romania's eastern Carpathians, within a mountain unit with less than 1900 m altitude -, over 90% encompasses high and medium accessibility levels (types 2 and 3) which shows a high potential for planning. Data resulted from this model can be used for an efficient management of trails in a national park and their evaluation according to the degree of accessibility