Аннотация:In the paper we present the system of glaciological data management has been developed in
the Institute of Geography of Russian Academy of Sciences (IGRAS).
Substantial and rapid environmental changes require developing methods which could be able
to manage huge information flows, to optimize processes of the data acquisition, storage,
analysis, and exchange. Such facilities can be provided by the newly developed GIS
technologies. Digital data bases are used as the key component of the GIS methods. Digital
Atlas «Snow and Ice on the Earth», glacier inventories and digital glaciological library are
the basic structures making possible objective presentation of the glaciological knowledge
and data. The system provides the data integration, access to the data base, and makes
possible using the GIS techniques for analysis. Data integration technologies are designed to
form the united information space of subject areas of the spatial data. The objects of
integration in our study are the information resources of glaciology, accumulated in a
distributed system of data on the IGRAS web servers and geoportals in forms of data and
metadata bases, structured data files, object data files, and electronic atlases. The result of
integration of the glaciological data technology application is the series of software and
technology solutions. The main result of this work is creation of geoportals «Electronic
Earth» (www.webgeo.ru) (2009), «The Nature and Resources of the Russian North»
(www.north.webgeo.ru), «IPY-IGRAS» (www.mpg. igras.ru), all based on the spatial
glaciological data. Another result is the digital and web-atlas «Snow and Ice of the Earth»,
presenting the example of open source of the spatial data on glaciology in the multiprogram
environment. Regional data bases created for regions of the Caucasus, Altai, Arctic and the
Antarctic Continent make it possible to develop various GIS models and to analyze
interrelations, status and dynamics of glaciological parameters. The system of links provides
easy access to distributed resources.
In our work we used the results of the studies supported through Russian Foundation for
Fundamental Research ( № 96-07-89146-в, 98-05-64303-а, 01-07-90217-в, 01-05-65474-а,
13-05-12047 офи_м, 13-05-41195РГО_а), Fundamental Research Programs of Presidium of
Russian Academy of Sciences “Electronic Earth”, “Assessment and ways to reduce the
negative effects of extreme natural events and disasters” and Department of Earth Sciences of
Russian Academy of Sciences “Physical and chemical processes in the atmosphere and
cryosphere, defining climate and the environment change”