The RAINS model was developed at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). IIASA is a unique non-governmental, non-profit research institute sponsored by scientific organizations from 15 countries. The Institute is situated in an 18th century Habsburg palace in the small town of Laxenburg, about 15 kilometers south of Austria's capital city, Vienna. In case your computer has internet access, you can now connect directly to IIASA's homepage.

Research at IIASA investigates issues of sustainability and the human dimensions of global change. In their study of environmental, economic, technological, and social developments, IIASA researchers generate methods and tools useful to both decision makers and the scientific community. This work is based on original state-of-the-art methodology and analytical approaches linking a variety of natural and social science disciplines. Recent projects include studies on global climate change, computer modelling of global vegetation, heavy metal pollution, acid rain, forest decline, economic transitions from central planning to open markets, the social and economic implications of population change, processes of international negotiations and the theory and methods of systems analysis.

The RAINS model was developed by IIASA's Transboundary Air Pollution project. The project started in 1984 the development of tools for the integrated assessment of alternative emission control strategies. The RAINS model was used for the scientific support of the the negotiations on the Second Sulphur Protocol of the UN/ECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution. With financial support of the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, the RAINS model was recently implemented for the rapidly growing economies in South-east Asia (RAINS-Asia).

During the last years, RAINS was further developed to include tropospheric ozone. The release of the extended version of RAINS combining the assessment of acidification, eutrophication and ground-level ozone is planned for 1998.

If you have questions, remarks or wishes for next releases of RAINS, send e-mail to [email protected]

Index	Table of Contents	IIASA