Geographic Information Systems for the Chernobyl Decision Makers in Ukraine

Following numerous national and international studies conducted on the overall impact of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster, decision-makers of the affected countries have oriented their efforts on environmental clean-up and population safety. They have focused on activities leading to a better understanding of radionuclide contamination and to the development of effective environmental rehabilitation programs. Initial developments involved the use of domestic USSR technologies consisting of mainframe IBM computers and DEC minicomputers. Later, personal computers with imported software packages were introduced into the decision-making process [Prister et al., 1994]. Following the breakup of the former USSR, the Ministry of Chernobyl (MinChernobyl) was created in Ukraine in 1991. One of the Ministry's mandate was the elimination of the environmental after-effects of the Chernobyl disaster.