Unlike connotations such as greenhouse effect. global change, sea level, desertification, etc. , permafrost is definitely lacking in the everyday speech of many non-specialists. The reason is that areas of permafrost are too remote, barren and isolated. Focus on permafrost today is brought when huge environmental disasters, mainly related to pollution by oil spills, occur. Even then it is offered as

Inhalt
Cyclic Evolution of Man and Permafrost: The Role of Permafrost on Societal Environment.- Main Results of Earth Cryosphere Studies and Sustainable Development.- Permafrost in a Changing Environment.- Terrestrial and Offshore Permafrost Evolution of the Laptev Sea Region during the Last Pleistocene-Holocene Glacial-Eustatic Cycle.- A Circumarctic Map of Perennially Frozen Deposits and Ground Ice.- Geocryological Mapping Of Arctic Shelves.- Study of Arctic Ecosystems Within the Framework of Loira Project.- Offshore Permafrost for Oil and Gas field Development.- The Cryolithozone Of The Shelf Of Darents And Kara Sea.- Evolution of the Cryolithozone in the Pleistocene and Holocene.- Permafrost Equivalents from Boreal to Tropical Zones.- Permafrost during the Pleistocene in North West and Central Europe.- European Permafrost at the LGM- and at Its Maximal Extent.- Permafrost Extent at the Last Glacial Maximum and at the Holocene Optimum. The Climex Map.- Sequence of Glaciations and Permafrost Events.- A Pleistocene Rock-Glacier above Lake Teletskoye Lake. An Indicator of Permafrost.- Permafrost Investigations in the Italian Mountains: The State of the Art.- Response of the Permafrost to Contemporary and Expected Climate Change.- Effect of Permafrost Changes on Economic Development, Environmental Security and Natural Resource Potential in Alaska.- Permafrost: Changes and Impacts.- Geothermal Studies of Permafrost Response to Global Natural Changes.- Changes in Permafrost Landscapes under Global Change.- Climatic Warming and Permafrost.- Methodological Principles of Forecasting Interaction between Engineering Structures and Environment in the Permafrost Zone.- Factor of Start Conditions by Site Selection for Underground Disposal of Nuclear Materials in Northwest Russia.-Geocryological Processes and Management Principles under Changing Climate and Human Activities.- Problems of Permafrost Engineering as Related to Global Climate Warming.- Some Prospects for Heat Pump Applications in Permafrost Engineering.- Program for International Cooperation in Permafrost Engineering.- Basis for and Development of IcePE Information System in Domains of Glaciology, Ice and Permafrost Engineering.- Recommendations for Foundations and Bases Built on Frozen Soils.- Gas Hydrates in Permafrost.- Methane Distribution in Permafrost: Evidence for an Interpore Pressure Methane Hydrate.- The Problem of the Emission of Deep-Buried Gases to the Atmosphere.- Flux of Methane from North Siberian Aquatic Systems: Influence on Atmospheric Methane.- Micro-Organisms and Biomarkers in Permafrost.- Ecology of Psychrophilic and Psychrotropic Micro-Organisms in Cold and Frozen Soils.- Significance to Astrobiology of Micro-Organisms in Permafrost and Ice.- Patterned Ground as an Evidence of Water on Mars.- Russian National Geocryological Database and a Strategy for Its Development.- The Proposed International Permafrost Monitoring Network and Service.- V: Panel Discussions, Conclusive Reports and Recommendations of the Plenary Session.