The Earth's Nature and Resources: A Comprehensive Geographical Atlas of the World

Summary

A. A. Lyutyy reviews The Earth’s Nature and Resources: A Comprehensive Geographical Atlas of the World, published in 1998 and prepared by the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences in collaboration with numerous institutions. Its two volumes contain 207 maps and more than 200 satellite images, organized into four sections: Earth and space; evolution of the geographical shell; its structure and resources; and human-induced changes. Coverage includes paleogeographical reconstructions, natural resources, ecological conditions, and the environmental effects of economic activity. The review emphasizes expanded ecological themes, the use of remote sensing imagery in map compilation and interpretation, and explanatory texts documenting methods and potential applications. Lyutyy notes that overall scientific and cartographic consistency accommodates differences among geographical schools in interpretation and boundary delineation, while formats and scales maintain continuity with earlier Russian world atlases. He regards the publication as a contribution to Russia’s foundational world-atlas series and to comprehensive, problem-oriented global mapping. The article also describes its English–Russian publication arrangements and institutional collaboration.