Lithuanian public areas in the context of creation of protected areas

Straipsnyje analizuojami Lietuvos nacionalinių parkų urbanistinių viešųjų erdvių formavimo ypatumai. Po Nepriklausomybės atkūrimo didelis dėmesys buvo skiriamas valstybinių parkų kraštovaizdžio formavimo planams ir projektams rengti bei juos reglamentuojantiems teisės aktams kurti. Projektuojant ir formuojant erdves, saugomos vietovės apsaugos bei vystymo viziją, būtina atsižvelgti ir į visuomenės poreikius. Ne mažiau svarbi ir erdvių bei gamtinės ir urbanistinės aplinkos darna, vientisumas, estetinė ir socialinė reikšmė, gamtos ir kultūros paveldo išsaugojimas. Teisiškai apibrėžta viešųjų erdvių sąvoka miestuose ar gyvenvietėse negali būti tiesiogiai taikoma ir formuojant valstybinių parkų erdves, komponuojant erdvinės struktūros elementus.A city’s squares, parks and public gardens are a very important urban and architectural space structure. Arrangement of public spaces in cities is a process of planning regulated by space planning documents, taking into account the already planned out territory, its value, and the planning work program formulated in planning tasks. Public spaces in parks are attractive not only as an individual space for unique state park facilities with significant cultural monuments or other objects of cultural heritage protected by the State, but also the intangible elements of the environment, as local identity, its cultural character, influence the quality of the landscape. Some state parks’ value may be associated not only with the amount of open space, quality, recreational resources, but also with those elements with its surroundings, or other objects and territories nearby. The smallest distance from the city to the state park is located in Vilnius, where Pavilniai Regional Park and in Kaunas where Kaunas Lagoon Regional Park is located just outside the city border. In close proximity to Klaipeda there are the Curonian Spit National Park which is spaced 700 meters far from the central part of the city (across the lagoon) and the Pajūris Regional Park - 6 km from the city center. The greatest distance from the protected area is Šiauliai where Kurtuvėnai Regional Park is 13 kilometers away from the city. Medium and small cities - Šilutė, Visaginas, Prienai, Trakai, Ignalina, Anykščiai and Biržai are all located inside the boundaries of a park or protected areas that are set up just outside the city. Preservation of open public spaces for visitors' needs, in accordance with the principle of respect for the already created world, exclusion of poorly planned out exploitation of nature, so that the present generation by using natural resources would not harm the environment and reflects on the balance of implementation of the objectives of the Convention on the landscape