Candidate of Geographical Sciences,

Associate Professor, Department of Geography and Cartography,

Volgograd State University

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Candidate of Geographical Sciences,

Head of the Department of Geography and Cartography,

Volgograd State University

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Candidate of Economic Sciences,

Head of the Department of Environmental Measures and Development

of the System of Specially Protected Territories,

Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Volgograd Region

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

Postgraduate Student, Department of Geography and Cartography,

Volgograd State University

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Abstract. The article analyzes the processes of degradation of landscapes of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain and Delta of Volga under the influence of recreational loads. It analyzes the state of natural complexes in 11 key areas of the Volgograd, Astrakhan regions and the Republic of Kalmykia. The data obtained in key areas was extended to the territory of the Volga-Akhtuba floodplain and Delta of Volga, using the methods of space images decoding. The authors describe the diagnostic features of recreational digression of landscapes on space images and estimate the impact of fishing on fish fauna of the Lower Volga. It is concluded that natural complexes are disturbed profoundly as a result of repeated exceeding of the maximum allowable recreational loads. Recreation in the Lower Volga is the most important factor causing degradation of natural complexes. The authors mark the necessity of the soonest adoption of managerial decisions aimed at the regulation of recreational loads on the natural complexes of wetlands. It is important to change the unilateral recreation development in the region, focused almost exclusively on fishing tourism.

Key words: Volga-Akhtuba floodplain, recreational nature management, landscape, recreational digression, fishing tourism.