You are cordially invited to take part in the International Internet Conference on Change of Environment at the Turn of the Millennium, which will start in January 2006.

Development of the biogeosphere of our planet is governed by many processes which have various magnitudes, cycles and activation periods. Joint action of these factors leads to a sharp contemporary increase of the whole spectrum of geodynamic processes and to a dramatic increase of their total energy. This manifests not just in geodynamics, but also in the development of landscapes and in the increasingly stressed ecosystems in many regions. The conference is devoted to the studies of various aspects of this problem and to the application of the state-of-the-art research methods.

Sections

The following conference sessions are envisaged:

А. Geomorphology and palaeogeography.
B. Landscape science.
C. Ecology, environmental management and nature protection.
D. State-of-the-art-methods to study open systems.

To take part in the conference please submit papers to the Organising Committee. Paper preparation and submission guidelines are given below.

Dates to remember

Paper submission deadline: 20 January 2006 г.
End of paper evaluation by the Organising Committee and publication of papers on the Internet: 20 February 2006
Discussion: 20 May to 20 September 2006
Discussion materials published: October-November 2006.

Submission guidelines

All materials are submitted by E-mail. Papers are accepted in English or in Russian language. They should be prepared in a text editor such as MS Word and saved in Rich Text Format (RTF). The formatting should be as follows: paper size A4, font type Times New Roman, font size 12, text spaced at 1.5 intervals. The number of pages should not exceed eight, and the total file size should be not more that 1.2 Mb. The file should be named using the surname of the first author, e.g. johnson.rtf. Figures (e.g. photographs, maps, and diagrams) should be included as separate JPEG or GIF files and named accordingly, e.g. johnson_fig1.jpg. The number of figures should not exceed four.

The paper should be accompanied by a detailed summary (one third to half a page). Russian-language papers should be accompanied by an English summary and English-language papers by a Russian summary. Should the English-speaking authors find it difficult to translate the summary into Russian, the Organising Committee will try to help.

The paper should be accompanied by a separate file containing the following author information:

Surname________________________ Name _________________________
Middle Name ______________________ Title ________________________
Affiliation and Work Address ______________________________________
______________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
Position________________________________________________________
Contact Tel. ____________________ Fax ____________________________
E-mail _________________________________________________________

Materials should be sent to the Organising Committee, simultaneously to all of the addresses below:


Papers should be submitted by 20 January 2006.

Organising Committee

I.V. Bondyrev (Chairman) – Head of the Department of Geomorphology of the Vakhushti Bagrationi Institute of Geography, D.Sc., Professor (Tbilisi, Georgia);

N.L. Beruchashvili – Head of the Department of Cartography and Geoinformatics of TSU, D.Sc., Professor (Tbilisi, Georgia);

S.S. Chernomorets (Vice-Chairman) – Senior Researcher, Laboratory of Snow Avalanches and Debris Flows, Faculty of Geography of MSU, Ph.D. (Moscow, Russia);

R.G. Gobedzhishvili – Head of the Department of Geomorphology of TSU, D.Sc., Professor (Tbilisi, Georgia);

S.A. Litvinskaya – Dean of the Faculty of Geo-Ecology at the Institute of Economy, Law and Natural Sciences, Head of the Department of Geo-Ecology of the Kuban State University, D.Sc., Correspondent Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, Professor (Krasnodar, Russia);

M.-R.D. Magomedov – Deputy Director of the Caspian Institute of Biological Resources of Dagestan Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, D.Sc., Correspondent Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Professor (Makhachkala, Russia);

G.Sh. Nakhutsrishvili – Director of the N. Ketskhoveli Institute of Botany, Correspondent Member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences, D.Sc., Professor (Tbilisi, Georgia);

Z.Kh. Seperteladze (Vice-Chairman) – Head of Department of Physical Geography and Environmental Protection of TSU, D.Sc., Professor (Tbilisi, Georgia);

V.P. Singh - Professor of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Louisiana State University, President of the American Institute of Hydrology, Ph.D., D.Sc. (Baton Rouge, U.S.A.);

A.A. Tishkov – Science Director of the GEF Biodiversity Conservation Project in Russia, D.Sc., Professor (Moscow, Russia);

M. Tezkan - Karadeniz Technical University, Fen-Edebiyat Fakultesi, Ph.D. (Trabzon, Turkey)

O.V. Tutubalina – Researcher, Laboratory of Aerospace Methods, Faculty of Geography of MSU, Ph.D. (Moscow, Russia);

Yu.I. Vinokurov – Director of the Institute of the Water and Ecology Problems, D.Sc., Professor (Barnaul, Russia)

V.B. Zaalishvili – Director of the Geophysical Center for Experimental Diagnostics of the Vladikavkaz Research Centre of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Correspondent Member of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, D.Sc., Professor (Vladikavkaz, Russia);

N.G. Zazanashvili – Conservation Director, WWF Caucasus Programme Office, Ph.D. (Tbilisi, Georgia).