The environmental assessment of the specially protected natural area «Lake Dus-Khol» due to its recreational use

This paper deals with the field integrated geo-environmental research of lake Dus-Khol in the summer of 2021. Under the leadership of the Tuvan Scientific Center in the context of project to identify maximum permissible and optimal recreation load on the specially protected natural area the study collected and updated data on the number of visitors and the condition of the coastal ecosystem health. Lake Dus-Khol is located in Tandinsky kozhuun of the Republic of Tuva, 3 km away from lake Hadyn. Dus-Khol is one of the most visited lakes in the Republic of Tuva. The main attractions are therapeutic mud, high-quality rapa, heliotherms, and drinking mineral waters. A regime of regional specially protected natural area has been introduced on the territory of the lake, the main goal is to preserve natural wetland complexes in their natural state and protect them from the negative effects of anthropogenic and man-made factors. Based on the data obtained, the types of recreation, the values of recreational load and the degree of recreational digression of the ecosystem are determined. The forms of recreation, recreation load values and recreation degree of ecosystem were identified based on the received data. The ways of optimizing recreational nature management on the lake were proposed. The visitors were counted by route counting method during the peak season. Data on the types and scale of recreational activities, as well as the degree of recreational digression of natural complexes of the coast were carried out by visual assessments and surveys.