Assessing the Need for and Environmental Acceptability of Infrastructural Facilities in Natural Areas with Special Management Status

Abstract

(1) Background: The article discusses approaches to assessing the ecological acceptability of locating new facilities in areas with special natural resource management status. The presence of natural resources and environmental constraints determine the activity of such facilities. We selected the Central Ecological Zone of the Baikal Natural Territory as the object of study, where the fundamental principle of economic activity is ecological, namely through the prevention of the harmful impacts of production, population, and business on the Lake Baikal ecosystems and the surrounding environment, as well as the restriction of certain types of economic activities and more stringent environmental regulation. The study aims to develop a methodological approach for assessing the ecological acceptability of locating facilities in areas with environmental constraints. (2) Methods: We analyzed the possible risks of locating new facilities based on determining the environmental impact of economic activities and assessing the environmental and associated socio-economic consequences of this impact. We determined the ecological acceptability of existing types of economic activities within the proposed approach based on a multi-criteria analysis, including an assessment of the state and possible changes in pollution flows and natural potential of the territories, the anthropogenic state of natural complexes, external and internal costs, and compliance with the status of natural resource management and regulations. (3) Results: The research results indicate that in most of the Central Ecological Zone of the Baikal Natural Territory, the location of new facilities is acceptable in terms of the balance between ecological capacity, anthropogenic load, and economic damage from pollution. However, when locating, it is necessary to consider restrictions on pollutant and contaminant standards, hydrological risks in certain sections of the coast, and the limited labor resources in the Severo-Baykalsky district. (4) Conclusions: The obtained analytical results can be used to scientifically substantiate the location of new facilities in areas with special natural resource management status since the main criterion postulated is that the anthropogenic load on the territory should not exceed the self-recovery potential of the territory’s natural complex.