Telecommunications and the Internet have made vast quantities of data and numerous analyses and reports more accessible than ever, but wading through potential sources in search of relevant data is a formidable task. The rapid growth, complexity, and sheer number of data sets and sources can lead to information overload. To facilitate more successful data searches and retrieval of information related to energy and environmental issues in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, this report provides annotated references to Internet information resources, including over 20 search engines and data retrieval services.

To make it easier to access information that can contribute to improving the environmental health and social welfare around the Caspian and Black Seas.

More than 1000 documents and web sites were reviewed during September 2000. The information resources were located primarily by searching the Internet. The annotated sites included in this report were considered to have useful information related to environmental, economic, and energy issues in selected countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Annotations also include a few recent journal articles and books as well as examples of search engines (free and fee-based) linked to commercial and governmental databases (such as the Energy Databases sponsored by DOE or Cambridge Scientific Abstracts).

The number of sites offering information related to development issues in this region grows and changes constantly. However, the content, size, timeliness, and utility of information encountered at different sites varies greatly. Some web sites offer powerful search engines capable of generating hundreds of links for a specific search request. Others offer tools permitting users to build custom tables with selected data sets. Over twenty search engine resources were annotated, including both free and fee-based sites. Other information resources were organized into chapters by geographic area: Armenia,Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Black Sea, and Caspian Sea.

The quantity of information on the World Wide Web is growing at exponential rates. Given the dynamic nature of data sets accessible via the Internet and the large number of possible sources, this report is not exhaustive. Rather, it provides a set of summaries for selected information sources organized by geographic area.

In addition to the report produced by this study, this CD-ROM contains additional resources, including searchable text of the document. To use the search functions on this CD-ROM, you will require a javascript-enabled Internet browser. Most browsers today include this functionality by default. This CD-ROM also contains energy infrastructure maps for Eastern Europe and Central Asia. you may view these maps from the infrastructure maps link. The maps are also provided on this CD-ROM in MapInfo(r) format and are located in the files\Map_Info Documents directory on the CD-ROM. You may access these maps if you have MapInfo software. The actual document is also available in Word Perfect(r) format in the files\Word_Perfect Documents directory.