ИСТИНА

Aspiring geopark “Belogradchik Rocks”, considered the most famous geological monument in Bulgaria, is based on the beautiful rock pinnacles formed in the Lower Triassic red sandstones, complemented with a remarkable geodiversity of sedimentary, igneous, volcanic and metamorphic rocks. ?here are dozens of geosites that correspond to the context of the main theme of the Geopark: geological phenomena, landscapes and their relation with the antique and medieval human history, summarized in 72 well illustrated scientific dossiers. Touristic infrastructure of the geopark includes five recently elaborated and supported ecotracks. In regard to natural landscape diversity the tracks are concentrated in submontane landscape on Triassic red bed rocks with brown forest soils under oak and oak with oriental hornbeam forests. The most eastern track (“Planiniza”) and the most western one (“Vedernik’) also touch cuestas landscape. In the course of previous field studies we evaluate aesthetic characteristics of each route by applying approach elaborated by Lithuanian geographers K.I. Eringis and A.R. Budrunas (1978). The system includes 28 characteristics of aesthetic quality of landscapes the routes cross through. Its advantage is that all indicators are elementary in order to minimize subjectivity of an observer. However, such field surveys are labor-intensive and spatially limited. Applying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) makes possible to measure most aesthetic characteristics of landscapes surrounded of existing or planned routes on the entire territory of geopark. Aerial photographic survey performed using DJI Phantom 4 produced orthophotomap, DEM and image-derived indices. The spatial resolution of these cartographical products is about 1m. The cartographical products were used to generate panorama for 10 viewpoints located on touristic route. Remote sensing allow measuring 21 of 28 aesthetic characteristics of landscapes such as depth and diversity of perspective view, virginity of landscape, number of mountain peaks and slopes; shape of skyline; manmade features and their correspondence to natural landscapes. We compared the results with field surveys and found their good compliance.