Land is a complex system of interrelated elements composed of biophysical and socioeconomic characteristics. Russia occupies 1,709 million hectares (ha) of land, about one-seventh of the global land area. This vast land contains a large diversity of natural and socioeconomic conditions that are reflected in countrywide inventories. Many scientists and various governmental organizations and institutions conducted long-term inventories and research aimed at gathering reliable and comprehensive information on the country's land resources. Systematic research was carried out with respect to Siberia and the Far East of Russia within the framework of the settlement program at the end of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the country scale, an intensive study was performed under the Government's Plan for Electrification of Russia (GOELRO), the establishment of collective farming (Collectivization) in the 1930s and 1940s, the "Plan for Transforming Nature" (end of the 1950s), and the "Plan for Development of Virgin and Abundant Lands" (early 1960s). During the last decades, substantial investigations were undertaken, among others, by the Council on Productive Facilities (SOPS) of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and by special government surveys on land (ROSKOMZEM), forests (ROSKOMLES), and land amelioration (MINVODHOZ). These efforts have resulted in a large volume of well-documented and published, mapped and descriptive data and stored archive information. However, for various reasons this valuable information is not widely used by Russian policymakers and scientists and is practically unknown abroad. In many cases, major global international programs suffer from a deficit of data on Russian land. These international programs are often forced to develop their own databases on Russian land, based on accessible data of varying quality. These efforts have resulted in a large number of contradicting figures describing the land of Russia. This CD-ROM on Russia's land resources will be an aid to overcoming the information deficits mentioned above.

The overall objective of the CD-ROM is to answer the need for a harmonized collection of integrated data on the land resources of Russia, as described in Chapter 10, Agenda 21 of UNCED. Today's dynamic society has been facing increasingly complex, closely interrelated, and rapidly spreading problems. Numerous scientists and policy-decision makers around the world are looking for integrated, holistic information that will enable them to undertake proper, timely, and relevant actions. They are preparing to aim modern and highly advanced technologies at effective management, hoping to help the world adapt to new realities. This CD-ROM is in line with these efforts and proposes new perspectives for encouraging land resources development in Russia.

The CD-ROM contains specially selected data. They are: (1) complete, (2) complex, (3) consistent, and (4) uniform. These data have been adapted from the latest available sources and centered on three major themes: socioeconomics (statistics and infrastructure); natural conditions (climate, hydrology, permafrost, relief, lithology, vegetation, soils, biodiversity, ecosystems, and land cover); and land endowment (land use, agriculture, forest use, land productivity, desertification, and land degradation). Maps, descriptive text, and an explanatory glossary illustrate the databases presented. For users interested in further details of a topic, basic references are provided.

The CD-ROM production was initiated and supported by the Russian Committee of Systems Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Forestry project of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). The baseline data have been developed at IIASA with considerable contributions from various institutes and organizations within Russia.

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