Analytical approach to natural-anthropic geomorphological hazards in relation with winter tourist activity in the mountainous environment: Poiana Braşov ski area case study

Abstract

The natural and anthropogenic-generated geomorphological hazards in the mountainous area have immediate consequences, with different degrees of danger on the tourist phenomenon, considering that modern tourist improvements boost the flows of tourists to the areas with high tourist attractiveness. At the level of the tourist's individual relation to the geomorphological hazards, an increase of the damage is noticed, in the context of relative mountain education and experience. Our paper analyses the triple relationship existing between the natural-anthropic geomorphological hazards, the tourists, respectively the tourist infrastructure, and the legislative regulations in the field of winter tourist activities, applied to the Poiana Braşov ski area. The main objectives were to identify and analyse the land instability factors and the geomorphological hazards, to determine the risk exposure of tourists and the ski area, as well as to identify managerial solutions for the existing risks in the upper part of Mount Postăvaru. The mountainous characteristics of this mountain area are given by the relatively low altitudes, steeply slopes, high isolation degree in relation to the surrounding geographic regions, which represent, on its Northern highest part the morphologic support for ski slopes with different difficulty degrees. The interaction between the anthropic and the natural factors induces instability of the slope surfaces; therefore, the resort is subjected to several types of geomorphological processes with variable intensities. The natural-anthropic geomorphological hazards may damage the ski area, the tourist activities and the tourists, generating accidents among them, on the grounds of the tendency of increasing tourist flows.