Shortly after the creation of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Free University Brussels) in 1970, currently labelled as VUB, a Department of Quaternary Geology was installed within the Faculty of Science in 1974. At the beginning it dealt mainly with the study of periglacial loess deposits of the Pleistocene Glacial Period in Central Belgium and with coastal deposits in relation to sea level rise during the warm Holocene period covering the last 10,000 years, in which the dawn of civilization took place step by step. Today the same research teams widen their scope of interest: they are presently studying the loess plateau in the People's Republic of China and the world-wide problems associated with sea level rise, coastal erosion being one of the most devastating natural hazards. More and more emphasis is put on problems concerning environmental engineering and those dealing with global change. Since 1975 UNESCO sponsored a number of symposia of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), whose secretariat was located on the VUB Campus grounds from 1973 to 1982. In 1981 the Applied Geology Department ofthe Faculty of Applied Sciences was created. The NATO-Advanced Research Workshop (ARW) , organized in Fuerteventura (Canary Islands, Spain) in March 1989 was a climax of this series of Global Change gatherings. As Rector of the VUB, I am satisfied that the VUB, through its Earth Technology Institute, of both USA and Belgium could cooperate with NATO and the National Science Foundations in cosponsoring such an initiative.

I: Greenhouse Effects.- The Greenhouse Effect, Stratospheric Ozone, Marine Productivity, and Global Hydrology: Feedbacks in the Global Climate System.- Effects of West African Air Humidity on Atlantic Sea Surface Temperature.- Determining Natural and Manmade Climate Change: Historical Review and Implications for the 1900's and Beyond.- Atmospheric, Oceanic and Climatic Response to Greenhouse and Feedback Effect.- Ice Sheets and Sea Level Change as a Response to Climatic Change at the Astronomical Time Scale.- Present, Past and Future Precipitation: Can We Trust the Models?.- II: Sea Level.- Sea Level.- Non-Eustatic Sea Level Changes from Mediterranean Tide Gages.- Present and Near-Future Sea-Level Changes: An Assessment.- Influence of Global Climatic Processes on the Hydrosphere Regime.- III: Drought and Water Deficiency.- Water Deficiency Versus Water Excess: Global Management Potential.- Extraterrestrial Impacts, Volcanoes, Climate and Sea Level.- Recent Developments in Research on the Loess in China.- Desertification or Desert Reclamation? Change in Climate or in Human Behaviour?.- Natural Protection and Voluntary Extension of the Tropical African Forest Cover.- River and Soils Cyclicities Interfering with Sea Level Changes.- Natural Aridification or Man-Made Desertification? A Question for the Future.- Climatic Oscillations as Registered Through the Ruzizi Plain Deposits (North Lake Tanganyika) Zaire - Burundi - Rwanda.- Global Change: Population, Land-Use and Vegetation in the Mediterranean Basin by the Mid-21st Century.- An Indication of an Abrupt Climatic Change as Seen from the Rainfall Data of a Mauritanian Station.- IV: Management, Techniques and Case Studies Section A: Sea Level.- Practical Problems for Coastal Submergence in the Light of SecularTrends.- Risk Assessment and Causes of Subsidence and Inundation along the Texas Gulf Coast.- Vulnerability of Coastal Lowlands. A Case Study of Land Subsidence in Shanghai, P.R. China.- The Impact of Neotectonics with Regard to Canals, Pipelines, Dams, Open Reservoirs, Etc. in Active Areas: The Case of the Hellenic Arc..- Evolution of Barrier Island-Lagoon Systems from 200 Ka Ago to the Present in the Littoral Zone of Alicante (Spain). Impact of a Probable Sea Level Rise.- Australia's Hydrological Storage and Rising Sea Level Hazard.- IV: Management, Techniques and Case Studies Section B: Greenhouse.- Possible Effects of Man on the Carbon Cycle in the Past and in the Future.- The Relationship of Inqua to the Global Change Program and Other International Groups.- IV: Management, Techniques and Case Studies Section C: Management.- Estimation of Natural and Man-Induced Groundwater Recharge.- Development and Management of Fossil Groundwater Resources for Purposes of Drought Mitigation.- Small Dams and Subsurface Dams in Arid and Semi-Arid Areas: The Example of Saharan and Sahelian Africa.- Study of the Chad Basin Water Supply by Catchment Carried Out in the Congo-Zaire Basin.- Groundwater Recharge and Storage by Damming a Small Ephemeral Stream.- Sea Level Rise and Artificial Groundwater Recharge. A Study on the Feasibility of Geohydrologic Management.- Climatic Changes in the Levant and the Possibility of their Mitigation.- The Legacy of Sahelian Management: 1965-1988.- Saline Groundwater in the Canary Islands (Spain) Resulting from Aridity.- IV: Management, Techniques and Case Studies Section D: Techniques.- Geological Resources for Construction with Low Energy and Low Temperature Input.- Site-Investigation in Semi-Arid And Arid Regions for Reconnaissance andEngineering-Geological Purposes.- Possible Engineering Solutions and a Case Study.- V: Panel Discussions, Conclusions and Recommendations.- Conclusions and Recommendations; Reports of Sessions and Panel Discussions.- Meeting Report.