the State Unitary Enterprise on Karst Control and Bank Protection of Gosstroy of the Russian Federation

(Dzerzhinsk, the Nizhnii Novgorod region). In Holland the research took place at the Netherlands Institute of Applied Geoscience (NITG-TNO) and the Delft Technical University (TU Delft). The research aimed to progress the theoretical and practical fundamentals of natural risk assessment and management. It developed GIS-technology to solve problems related to sustainable development in karst areas. It has done this by generating risk maps of hazardous geological processes followed by the development of practical recommendations for subsurface management in urban and industrial areas. Karst and suffosion development was studied at two key sites in Moscow and Dzerzhinsk where the results are being implemented. At the Moscow site, engineering geological data analysis, performed in key areas, proved karst hazard prediction may be based on deterministic engineering geological models. At the Dzerzhinsk study site, the method based on understanding the stochastic distribution of surface karst features proved more appropriate. Combining both approaches using computer modelling in a GIS environment have allowed information an