9522969 Kaufman This grant supports a two-day Joint US-Russia Workshop on "Planning for Sustainable Development in Russia: Using Environment and Health Databanks," to be held in the Washington, DC, area in the last week of April, 1995, which is to be organized by Drs. Ira Kaufman, Greg Guroff, and Murray Feshbach, under the aegis of Legacy International of Alexandria, VA, the Center for Post-Soviet Studies, and the Center for Russian Environment Policy. To assess Russia's influence on global economic change requires researchers and policymakers to have greater access to the Russian Federation's vast scientific resources and information. Likewise, government agencies, international organizations, corporations, and Russian citizens require the appropriate data to address the current environment and health crisis, as well as the impact of future development. The recent completion of the first "Environment and Health Atlas of Russia" is a first step to presenting the wealth of Russian data. To integrate the atlas and other information with global change initiatives, a repository for Russian environment and health data sets needs to be standardized, digitalized, updated, and translated to a format for policy makers. The goal is to outline a strategy for establishing a Russian electronic databank for environment and health. The workshop will fulfill this goal by (1) examining existing Russian data initiatives and assess future data needs for environment and health in Russia; (2) presenting several options for applying information technology to meet Russian data needs; (3) recommending the infrastructure and standards necessary for the proposed databank; and (4) generating new proposal ideas to address global change issues using current data. Delegations from government, private sector, non- government organizations, and universities from the U.S. and Russia will participate. The group will address the possibilities and difficulties to be encountered in creati ng a Russian databank, as well as integration of the databank with relevant international programs. Participants will recommend follow-up databank proposals, the submission of which, workshop organizers will coordinate. This project in geography and regional science fulfills the program objective of advancing scientific knowledge by enabling leading experts in Russia and the United States to combine complementary talents and pool resources in areas of strong mutual interest and competence. ***
