EN
In order to determine tourist absorption capacity of the mountain ranges of the Krosno province, the author first surveyed basic methodological approaches and, subsequently, employed the method of successive approximations (steps) within which she employed various partial methods.The first step was to analyse the methods and the ratios of determining tourist absorption capacity on the different scales of physical planning. The following approaches were discussed: - norm/ratio approach, - intuitive, - phytosociological, - determining marginal quantity/time natural thresholds, - experimental, - determining the limit of acceptable changes, - determining the ratios of traffic capacity for motorised tourism in relation to the preservation of the environment and the safety of tourists. The second step was to delimit the area of research and to designate spatial structural units such as: - national parks, - landscape parks, - the zones of intensive tourist exploitation of Lake Myczkowski and Lake Soliński, - mountain ranges that are not subject to legal protection, - and to divide them into the zones of different tourist exploitation. Accordingly, the following were designated: - the zone of the concentration of accommodation, - a tourist zone divided into: the areas of concentrated tourist traffic, the areas of a freer penetration, - the zone of an extensive exploitation. The next step was to select the ratios of capacity, absorption capacity and flow capacity for the areas of the Krosno province, as based on the following criteria: - the regional scale of calculations - the extent of the legal protection of the area, - the sorts of tourist activities, - the tourist season. The accepted ratios have become the basis for the evaluation of absorption capacity within spatial structural units as well as the zones of tourist exploitation delimited within those units. On the regional scale, the results, thus obtained, should be treated as data constituting the primary source material for taking measures to either stimulate the development of tourism or to restrict it on certain areas. If need be, these data ought to be verified and, on the scale of local planning, they should be much more detailed. Therefore, apart from the so-called basic ratios that were used for the calculations, the author also presented complementary ratios, which are employed in case of more detailed scales.