This glossary integrates a wealth of policy, legal, management and technical terms that were selected according to one key criterion: each of them had to be used in environmental compliance promotion and enforcement or have significance for this field.

This reference manual provides a list of approximately 300 technical terms and phrases common to environmental engineering which non-English speakers often find difficult to understand in English. The manual provides the terms and phrases in alphabetical order, followed by a concise English definition, then a translation of the term in Russian and, finally, an interpretation or translation of the term or phrase in Russian. Following the Russian translations section, the columns are reversed and reordered alphabetically in Russian with the English term and translation following the Russian term or phrase.The objective is to provide a technical term reference manual for non-English speaking students and engineers who are familiar with Russian, but uncomfortable with English and to provide a similar reference for English speaking students and engineers working in an area of the world where the Russian language predominates

Environmental problems ignore international boundaries. Toxic wastes travel by water and air, sometimes displacing the effects of an environmental disaster entirely outside of its country of origin. It is now understood that to overcome the problems that face us international co-operation is required. This important work is designed to assist in that process, by helping to break down the language barriers that stand between countries. The manual, written in parallel English, German, French and Russian texts, provides the basic tools of communication in the specialized fields of environmental sciences between speakers of these languages. Each chapter has been revised in each separate language by specialists in the field to guarantee the authenticity of the information presented. The author is unique in his approach, presenting the key-words in context, as opposed to simple glossary entries, allowing the reader to fully understand the complex relations between the word and the concepts involved. A comprehensive index written in all four languages guides the reader through the text, providing references to the words as they are used in different disciplines.