Geoecological specific features of the recreation and tourism development in small river valleys (on the example of the Central Economic Region)

The article describes the approach for preliminary assessing the physical-geographic, socio-economic, cultural-historical and ecological conditions for recreation and tourism development in small river valleys on the example of the macroregion – Central Economic Region, Russian Federation. Small rivers and their valleys are vulnerable elements of the river network, at the same time there are a few studies on small watercourses in the tourist-recreational aspect in the Russian geoecological science. Methods of remote-sensing, quantitative assessment of recreation and tourism resources, point-rating assessment are used. Final result of the work – zoning of possible tourist and recreational pressure based on publicly available data. Moscow, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Yaroslavl and Tula Regions – the main area with the most unfavorable conditions, Bryansk Region is the separate border area. Tourist and recreational complexes mostly located on the territories with low and medium population density, at the same time 57% located inside the good transport accessibility. Simultaneous development of urban and rural tourism, river’s role in urban blue-green infrastructure, location to customers of tourist services, environmental pollution are considered as the most important criteria for the geoecological research. 8 small river valleys and related urban settlements are identified by these criteria. Identified territories are characterized by expressed signs of the ecological tourist and recreational cluster, functioning of which depends on small river valley’s geoecological problems.