International Geographical Union

The world organization of geographers, founded in 1922.

In 1970 the International Geographical Union (IGU) consisted of more than 70 countries. The USSR has been a member of the IGU since 1956 and makes contact with it through the National Committee of Soviet Geographers of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Its charter calls for the IGU to assist the study of geographic problems, especially those demanding international cooperation; to provide for scientific discussion of them and the publication of results; to conduct international geographical congresses and regional conferences; and to set up a commission for carrying out the tasks of the IGU between congresses. The general assembly, consisting of the heads of the national delegations of the member nations, elects an executive committee that directs the activity of the IGU. The general assembly is usually convoked during congresses. The International Cartographical Association and the International Association for the Study of the Quaternary System are affiliated with the IGU. The biannual IGU Bulletin contains reports on its congresses and conferences, surveys of the work of the commissions, and information on the International Cartographical Association.

The IGU commissions (for example, on Man and the Environment, on processes and types of urbanization, and on applied geography) assist the development of new, important trends in geography and propagandize new methods (the commissions of quantitative methods, the collection and study of geographical information, and so forth). They also develop methodological handbooks of an international character (such as the commissions of national and regional atlases and geomorphological survey and mapping) and assist the realization of international scientific programs (the commission for the tenth international anniversary of hydrology).

Soviet scholars have been elected to the IGU Executive Committee (academicians I. P. Gerasimov, S. V. Kalesnik and academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Georgian SSR F. F. Davitiia), and they take an active part in international geographical congresses and conferences and do a great deal of work in the commissions of the IGU.