PUBLIC-ACCESS IN THE WEST EUROPEAN COUNTRYSIDE - A COMPARATIVE SURVEY

This comparative study employs the concept of physical rigour to map and measure recreational routes and zones available to the public. The comparison is made for 15 representative countryside districts in four national settings (Great Britain, West Germany, France, and Benelux). Three of the districts are national parks, while the others are 40 x 25 km settled areas chosen to typify the physical and human landscape of their region. Statistical measures of access availability are computed for five levels of access rigour, grading from passive through to arduous. Road or 'passive' access is most prevalent in settled districts of West Germany and France, while footpaths providing casual access are most plentiful in West Germany and Benelux. Off-route lands open to the public are most common in sparsely settled upland areas. Polynomial regressions show that both amplitude of relief and type of land cover influence the availability of access types. However, land-use intensity is the strongest determinant of the access regime in all except mountainous areas. Although not investigated statistically, regional and national variations in access availability may be related to the history of land apportionment and to legal/customary constraints on public access. These help to explain exceptionally low degrees of access in Great Britain.