The use of view analyses in shaping a forest landscape in the vicinity of water reservoirs

An increasing importance of the social functions of the forest entails the necessity to modify forestry management in a way which would ensure its social acceptance. This mainly concerns those parts of the forest that are “most visible”, in the surroundings of roads, tourist trails, as well as water bodies. The article discusses the importance of view analyses in forest landscaping. On the basis of the adopted methodological assumptions, the assessment of landscape resources of the forest in the vicinity of a water reservoir in the Kielce Forest District (Radom Regional Forest Directorate) has been made. Available ortophotomaps and aerial photographs taken by UAVs were used for view analyses together with elevation data collected through airborne laser scanning. The results obtained allow to make recommendations for the protection of the reservoir exposure as well as engineering forest management and silviculture. Consequently, the inclusion of visual analyses into the planning stage enables verification of the quality of forest management plans.