Volyn region has the largest reserves of lake sapropel deposits in Ukraine. The variety of composition and properties of such deposits allow us to consider them as one of the main and promising types of raw materials for mud therapy and therapeutic cosmetology. Sapropel mud and drugs based on them are well-known for their significant therapeutic and health-improving effect. At the same time, lake sapropel deposits are often located in the areas of excessive anthropogenic and man-made impact, and they are subjected to uncontrolled recreational load, silted up, overgrown and turned into swamps. Due to the need of preservation and therapeutic use of such a valuable natural resource as sapropel deposits it is important to study the conditions of their formation, the peculiarities of the material composition, basic physico-mechanical and balneological properties, sanitary and epidemiological condition as well as the development of theoretical and practical recommendations for their preservation and rational use. Therapeutic muds are the key factors for tourism and recreation development in many regions of the world, so we believe that objective studies of lake sapropel in the region will expand the traditional use of natural resources of the region and promote health-improving tourism and recreation.
The dissertation is devoted to the identification, quantitative and qualitative evaluation of sapropel peloids of Volyn region as well as the development of the principles of their protection and medical and health use as important components for the development of recreational and tourist industry of the region. For this purpose, six groups of main tasks were solved: modern scientific approaches to the study of freshwater therapeutic muds were processed and the conceptual and terminological apparatus was specified; the regional physical and geographical factors of formation and spread of sapropel deposits were determined, the information on their reserves was generalized; the compliance of lake sapropel with the requirements established for therapeutic muds was clarified; perspective resources of sapropel peloids of Volyn region were estimated and lake deposits of sapropel were classified according to prospects of development for resort and recreational needs; recommendations were developed and measures aimed at preserving and optimizing the rational use of sapropel peloids were substantiated. A number of important issues related to the use of lake sapropel deposits in the Volyn region in health-improving tourism and recreation remain out of the attention of scientific circles. Therefore, the relevance of scientific research in this area is quite obvious.
The scientific value of the obtained results lies in the fact that the dissertation for the first time performed a comprehensive study of the material composition and physical and mechanical properties of various species of lake sapropel, which has the appropriate conditions for use in mud therapy or therapeutic cosmetology, sapropel peloids are classified, and the technique of estimation of lake sapropel deposits on prospects of development for the purposes of recreation or health-improving tourism is tested, too. By generalizing the actual data, it was possible to quantitatively characterize the sapropel resources of Volyn region, which are promising for use in mud therapy and therapeutic cosmetology. As a result, a constructive-geographical concept of rational use and protection of sapropel peloids of lakes has been developed.
The obtained scientific and practical results are a significant contribution to the assessment of the natural resource potential of Volyn region. The materials presented in the dissertation contain primary data for decision-making on the design and organization of extraction of sapropel resources to obtain high-quality peloid products. The list of priority, perspective and conditionally-perspective deposits is the objective information at a choice of raw materials bases for recreational and tourist development. The theoretical provisions of the dissertation can be used in the functional-planning organization of the territory adjacent to the sapropel deposits and in the regional programs development for tourism groth and recreational nature management strategy in general.
Key words: sapropel, bottom sediments, lake, therapeutic mud, peloids, recreation, mud treatment, therapeutic cosmetology, health-improving tourism recreational nature management, natural resource potential , recreational limnology, Volyn region.
