Resources 2021, 10, 126. https://doi.org/10.3390/resources10120126 www.mdpi.com/journal/resources Article The Assessment of Hydrogeosites in the Fann Mountains, Tajikistan as a Basis for Sustainable Tourism Katarzyna Pukowiec-Kurda, Oimahmad Rahmonov, Michał Sobala * and Urszula Myga-Piątek Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Silesia, 41200 Sosnowiec, Poland; katarzyna.pukowiec@us.edu.pl (K.P.-K.); oimahmad.rahmonov@us.edu.pl (O.R.); urszula.myga-piatek@us.edu.pl (U.M.-P.) * Correspondence: michal.sobala@us.edu.pl; Tel.: +48-32-3689-263 Abstract: Despite the fact that the Fann Mountains are among the most popular tourist destinations in Tajikistan, they are still in the first stage of tourism development. This represents a great op- portunity for the implementation of the principles of sustainable tourism, which will avoid the mistakes associated with the uncontrolled tourism development currently observed in other mountain areas of the world. The aim of this article is to demonstrate, using the example of the Fann Mountains, how hydrogeosites in mountain areas can be valorised for the needs of cognitive tourism. The valorisation methods used in previous research to this point have focused on the evaluation of the objects themselves. This study additionally takes into account features of the surroundings of hydrogeostations, such as the visibility range, the vertical development of the view, and the diversity of the landscape. The conducted value assessments of the sites and their surroundings show that in both internal and external assessments the highest values were achieved by lakes and wetlands. This means that the evaluation of the surroundings has a strong influence on the results obtained and the choice of hydrogeotourism attractions. Keywords: Tajikistan; high mountain tourism; geotourism; aesthetic value 1. Introduction Today, global environmental changes are very dynamic, and one of the main factors causing them is human activity [1]. Such recent changes, including global warming, are being obfuscated [2,3]. Hence, education on global processes is vital because an educated society is less susceptible to disinformation campaigns [4]. While tourism is one human activity that can harm the environment, it may also be treated as a crucial factor in in- creasing social education about environmental problems. The educational function of tourism is widely used today and ecological awareness is shaped through communing with nature. This contact is one reason why we need to take care of the natural envi- ronment [5,6]. In the face of dynamic environmental changes caused by human activity, tourism should play an important educational role. It may have a positive influence because tourism combines entertainment with education, shaping attitudes and sensi- tivity towards contemporary environmental problems. Today, one of the most crucial environmental problems that humanity needs to deal with is global warming [7]. One of the effects of climate change is changes in water re- sources [8,9]. These are particularly important in mountain environments characterised by high vulnerability to change [10]. The increasing global warming is contributing to the disappearance of mountain glaciers worldwide, which act as sources of water for mountain areas [11] and those surrounding them. For example, H. D. Pritchard [12] reports that glaciers are essential sources of fresh water in the western river basins of the high-mountain Asia region (Pakistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Xinjiang in northwestern China), particularly during droughts. This is because these regions re- Citation: Pukowiec-Kurda, K.; Rahmonov, O.; Sobala, M.; Myga-Piątek, U. The Assessment of Hydrogeosites in the Fann Mountains, Tajikistan as a Basis for Sustainable Tourism. Resources 2021, 10, 126. https://doi.org/10.3390/ resources10120126 Academic Editor: Nicoletta Santangelo Received: 12 November 2021 Accepted: 9 December 2021 Published: 13 December 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/license s/by/4.0/).