Foreword MLSD'2013

International conference «Management of Large-scale System Development» (MLSD'2013) is devoted to the discussion of research in the following fields:

• Problems of management of the development of large-scale systems including trans-national corporations, national holdings and corporations.

• Methods and instrumental facilities for management of the investment projects and programs.

• Simulation and optimization of the management of large-scale system development.

• Management of the fuel-energy, economic and other systems.

• Management of transportation systems.

• Management of development of large-scale technical complexes and systems in the branches of national economy.

• Management of the regional and municipal systems.

• Management of the nuclear power and other hazardous plants.

• Informational and program support of the systems of management of large-scale works.

• Monitoring in the problems of management of large-scale systems.

The large-scale systems are classified with complex (large) systems characterized by combined (inter-industrial, inter-regional) interaction of the elements distributed over a vast territory and requiring essential input of resources and time to their development.

Typical examples of the large-scale systems are represented by the fuel-energy complex and its individual branches, transportation, agrarian-industrial, territorial-industrial, regional, and industrial systems, holdings, concerns, financial-industrial groups, distributed systems for information transmission and handling, and other complexes.

Main distinctions of the large-scale systems:

• Substantial consumption of resources and time for system development, forward investing may run into several years.

• Fuzzy boundaries because in the course of development the composition of the system elements and their interactions with the environment vary essentially and the territory spanned by the system can extend from the regional to the global scale.

• Close relationship with other large-scale systems and the environment.

• Complex nature of management requiring, in particular, coordination of the industrial, corporate, and regional interests.

• Robustness and stability, smaller deviations in the development parameters and interactions of the individual elements produce little impact on the development of the system as a whole.

• Other characteristics of the complex (large) systems.

The subject area of the conference covers various lines of theoretical research and applications of the management of developnent of the large-scale systems, methods, and instrumental facilities of the management of investment projects and programs.

Methods for investigation of such systems must take into account the complex nature of management, complex structure and interrelations with other systems and the environment and rely on the procedure for design of the complexes of interrelated models and the optimization-simulation approach.

The conference which is held on the annual basis allows one to unite the efforts of the researchers interested in the problems of managing the development of large-scale systems and helps them to familiarize themselves with the results of the realized projects and plan their future research.

Chairman of the Program Committee, Academician S.N.Vasil'ev

Deputed Chairman of the Program Committee, Dr. A.D.Tsvirkun