Survey of the Methods for Evaluating the Natural Environment One of the main tasks of touristic geography is to evaluate the environment in the scope defined by this discipline. The evaluation is most often achieved by complex analysis of individual natural elements. The importance of this analysis correlates with the postulates of socio-economical policy whose aim is to describe the best conditions for the development of planning concepts. The author's intention was to present a wide spectrum of the methods for evaluating the natural environment to meet recreational needs. The methods which are available and widely used in Poland have only been mentioned for information, whereas the original and rarely applied ones, e.g. geographic information processing, have been discussed in greater detail. In recent years the literature of the subject has shown a tendency to treat the environment as a system. It presents researchers with a new challange and leads to the creation of another set of evaluation methods..