Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography, Landscape Geochemistry and Soil Geography,
Leninskie Gory, 1, 119991, Moscow, Russia,
academician of RAS,
E-mail: info@geogr.msu.ru

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography, Integrated Mapping Laboratory,
Leninskie Gory, 1, 119991, Moscow, Russia,
E-mail: tatianav.kotova@yandex.ru

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography, Integrated Mapping Laboratory,
Leninskie Gory, 1, 119991, Moscow, Russia,
E-mail: vstikunov@yandex.ru

The Atlas is a fundamental integrated scientific and reference publication that presents the environmental situation in the country at the beginning of the XXI century. The Atlas was developed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Ecology of the Russian Federation, the Russian Geographical Society, and the Faculty of Geography of M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University (which is reflected on its front page). It incorporates the latest scientific, methodological, and technological achievements of science and cartography while preserving continuity of the best examples of the national and foreign cartographic works. More than 30 organizations participated in its creation, including a number of ministries, institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, etc.

The Atlas is based on materials from the State Environmental Observing Service, state and departmental statistics, and original research work. The Atlas contains more than 200 maps of Russia at scales of 1 : 20 000 000–1 : 60 000 000, the world at scales of 1 : 67 000 000–1 : 110 000, and the individual regions of the country on larger scales. The Atlas also includes an array of space images of different scales that allow the users to use ecological maps in interpretation of observed typical environmental situation, facilitating comprehensibility and clarity. The maps are supplemented by the text descriptions with graphic graphs, illustrations, and diagrams.

The Atlas includes seven sections. The introductory section presents the assessment of Russia′s environmental situation and its global environmental role. Other sections describe the natural conditions that determine the ecological situation, the economic impact of the economic activity on the natural environment, and the modern ecological and medical-ecological situation. The final section covers organizational and implementation actions at the national and international levels aimed at optimizing the environment in the context of sustainable development of the territories. The Atlas provides references to the original research on the ecological disaster in the summer of 2010, conflicts between nature use and the environment at different territorial levels, environmental crimes and violations, environmental portraits of Russia’s regions in the media, and environmental problems of several regions of Russia.

The publication is intended for a wide audience and can be used in a large number of management, economic, scientific, educational, and public activities. The authors of the Atlas hope that it will promote greater awareness of the country’s population about its environmental problems and improve the country’s ecological culture.

multidisciplinary ecological atlas, natural conditions of formation of ecological situation, the anthropogenic impact, ecological status, sustainable development