State and dynamics of geosciences and human geography of Mongolia - Extended abstracts of the International Symposium Mongolia 2000

The Mongolia 2000 International Congress will be held at the Freie Universität in Berlin from October 11 to 13, 2000, and will present research results from the last decade of the 20th century, after Mongolia became more accessible again to researchers from the western world. In planning this congress, the organizers aimed to focus on the region of the present state of Mongolia (Outer Mongolia), presenting the results of 10 years of research work in the fields of physical geography, geology and human geography. […] The extended abstracts in this volume fall into two main categories: on the one hand, research work oriented towards human geography and social sciences; on the other, research work based in the earth sciences. The former focuses on the changes since the socialist planned economy was abolished and on the conflicts arising from the introduction of a free market economy in a country of mobile livestock-keepers (nomads), the latter on the evolution of the natural landscape and climatic change in selected regions of Mongolia. The contributions clearly show the broad and complex nature of the interdisciplinary approaches practised by Mongolian, Russian, Japanese, English and German scientists over the past 10 years.