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Preliminary contacts and arrangements with the Department of Cartography,
Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences (IGRAS) made in 1993
provided
enough momentum in early 1994 for ACASIAN to immediately begin initial spatial
data generation for the
low level administrative boundaries of the entire
former Soviet Union.
A formal agreement between The Institute of Geography (RAS),
ACASIAN (Griffith University)
and The Centre for Russian and Euro-Asian Studies (The University of Melbourne)
has established the Russian Federation and Former Soviet Republics Geographical
Information Systems Project
(RFFSR GIS Project) to fulfil the goals of SIIRCEASA.
By early 1997 the first phase of the RFFSR databases containing all of the
low-level administrative units (rayon and gorsoviet) contained in the last
Soviet
census in 1989 will be completed and made available to SIIRCEASA institutions via AARNet. Those data will also be available for licensing for academic research and other purposes from ACASIAN
The RFFSR databases
will be extended to cover the 1979 Soviet census, and then the earlier ones
(1970 and 1959) as funding allows, in order to
create an historical dimension for low-level Soviet administrative boundaries
covering the post-war period.
When fully operational, SIIRCEASA database will provide a unique research
infrastructure
for specialist scholars across a wide range of disciplines at all Australian
Universities
who are involved in research on what became the 'Commonwealth of Independent
States' (CIS) after the collapse of the USSR, and are now often referred to
as the 'Newly Independent
States' (NIS).
This page last updated April 18, 1999.
SEARCH ACASIAN PAGES.
THE SPATIAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE FOR RUSSIAN AND CENTRAL
EURO-ASIA STUDIES IN AUSTRALIA (SIIRCEASA)
Background
The SIIRCEASA consortium consisting of nine Unified National System institutions
was created on a basis of an ARC Mechanism C grant
of $130,000 for 1994. An additional $100,000 was obtained for 1995 from the
new Research Infrastructure (Equipment and Facilities) Program.
The SIIRCEASA Consortium
Griffith University - Project Leader
The University of Melbourne - Major Partner
Australian Defence Forces Academy
The Australian National University, Faculty of Arts
LaTrobe University
Macquarie University
Monash University
University of New South Wales
University of Sydney
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