Since the beginning of the 20th century, more than 150 sinkhole occurrences, mainly dropout (or covercollapse)sinkholes, have been reported in the Tournaisis area (south-eastern Belgium). Land-use planning in such a context has to take into account hazards linked with sinkhole subsidence and collapse. Management maps, drawn at a regional scale, point out zones where karstic risks have to be taken into account when dealing with infrastructure or building projects. However, karst hazard is highly variable in three dimensions at the local scale. Therefore, for such purposes, an accurate methodology is needed to detect and delineate covered karst features, especially when located in urbanized areas. As geophysical investigations are sensitive to contrasts in physical properties of soils, these methods can be useful to detect such targets. The specific karstic context encountered in the Tournaisis area strongly guides the choice of investigation techniques. Electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) methods were tested on a wellknown site where dropout sinkholes occurred formerly. This site was also studied using static cone penetration tests (CPT) and boreholes. A 3D inverted resistivity model was computed based on the 2D ERI models obtained after inversion. Resistivity profiles were extracted at each CPT location and compared to geotechnical results to determine an empirical and site-specific resistivity law that allows discrimination between weathered zones and sound limestone. Performance tests were conducted to evaluate the potential of the proposed methodology for two typical engineering problems based on two current hypotheses. Borehole data were used as ground truth. Similar performance tests were also computed using the CPT depth to bedrock model. The results of these performance tests are compared and discussed. Finally, an ERI-based investigation strategy is proposed to assess karst hazard in palaeokarstic context, such as encountered in the Tournaisis area, at the scale needed for building and infrastructure purposes. 

Lapa Nova is a dolomitic cave about 4.5 km long located in northwestern Minas Gerais state, Brazil. The cave experiences intense tourism, concentrated over a single period of the year, during the Feast of Our Lady of Lapa. In order to evaluate the impacts felt by the invertebrate community from this tourism, a new methodology was proposed. Four types of areas (intense visitation area, outlying visitation areas, moderate visitation areas and no-visitation areas) were sampled for invertebrates. There was one sampling prior and another on the last day of the 128th feast, to evaluate the effects of visitation on cave-dwelling invertebrates. Results show that invertebrate populations residing in more intensely visited areas of the cave undergo changes in distribution following the event. As a consequence of tourism, invertebrates shift to outlying locations from the visited area, which serve as refuges to the communities. Apparently, the fact that there are places inside Lapa Nova inaccessible to tourists reduces the impact suffered by the invertebrate community, as those sites serve as refuges for cave-dwelling organisms during the pilgrimage. A proper management plan was devised for the tourism/religious use of the cave. It consists basically of delimiting marked pathways for tourists, allowing invertebrates to seek shelter at locations outside visited areas and keeping no-visitation areas off-limits to tourism based on the results of the visitation effects on cave-dwelling invertebrates.

This paper presents newly discovered candidate cave entrances into Martian near-surface lava tubes, volcano-tectonic fracture systems, and pit craters and describes their characteristics and exploration possibilities. These candidates are all collapse features that occur either intermittently along laterally continuous trench-like depressions or in the floors of sheer-walled atypical pit craters. As viewed from orbit, locations of most candidates are visibly consistent with known terrestrial features such as tube-fed lava flows, volcano-tectonic fractures, and pit craters, each of which forms by mechanisms that can produce caves. Although we cannot determine subsurface extents of the Martian features discussed here, some may continue unimpeded for many kilometers if terrestrial examples are indeed analogous. The features presented here were identified in images acquired by the Mars Odyssey’s Thermal Emission Imaging System visiblewavelength camera, and by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter’s Context Camera. Select candidates have since been targeted by the High-Resolution Imaging Science Experiment. Martian caves are promising potential sites for future human habitation and astrobiology investigations; understanding their characteristics is critical for long-term mission planning and for developing the necessary exploration technologies

Gypsum dissolves rapidly underground and at the surface, forming gypsum karst features that include caves, subsidence areas, and sinkholes. Mapping these landforms, understanding the gypsum karst and local hydrogeology, and producing sinkhole susceptibility and hazard maps are crucial for development and public safety. Situations that change the local hydrogeology, such as dams, water abstraction, or injection/drainage, can accelerate dissolution and subsidence processes, increasing the severity of the problems; dams and canals built on gypsum karst can leak or fail catastrophically. Gypsum karst problems can be mitigated by careful surveying and scientific investigation followed by phased preventive planning, ground investigation, and construction incorporating sinkhole-proof designs. Towns and cities, including parts of Paris (France), Dzerzhinksk (Russia), Madrid and Zaragoza (Spain), Birzai (Lithuania), and Ripon and Darlington (UK), are developed on such ground requiring local planning guidelines and special construction methods. Roads, railways, pipelines, and bridges are particularly vulnerable to such subsidence and require special consideration. 

Heavily karstified gypsum and dolomite aquifers occur in the Permian (Zechstein Group) of Eastern England. Here rapid active gypsum dissolution causes subsidence and abundant sinkholes affect an approximately 140-km by 3-km area from Darlington, through Ripon to Doncaster. The topography and easterly dip of the strata feed artesian water through the dolomite up into the overlying gypsum sequences. The shallow-circulating groundwater emerges as sulfate-rich springs with temperatures between 9-12 oC, many emanating from sinkholes that steam and do not freeze in the winter (such as Hell Kettles, Darlington). Water also circulates from the east through the overlying Triassic sandstone aquifer. Calcareous tufa deposits and tufa-cemented gravels also attest to the passage and escape of this groundwater. The sizes of the sinkholes, their depth and that of the associated breccia pipes are controlled by the thickness of gypsum that can dissolve and by the bulking factors associated with the collapsed rocks. The presence of sulfate-rich water affects the local potability of the supply. Groundwater abstraction locally aggravates the subsidence problems, both by active dissolution and drawdown. Furthermore, the gypsum and dolomite karstification has local implications for the installation of ground-source heat pumps. The sulfate-rich springs show where active subsidence is expected; their presence along with records of subsidence can inform planning and development of areas requiring mitigation measures.

Karst; Rock Mass Rating (RMR);Sinkhole collapse; Tebessa This research work deals with the problem of karst sinkhole collapse occurring in the last few years in Cheria area (NE Algeria). This newly revealed phenomenon is of a major constrain in land use planning and urbanization, it has become necessary to locate and assess the stability of these underground features before any planning operation. Several exploration methods for the localization of underground cavities have been considered. Geological survey, discontinuity analysis, resistivity survey [ground penetrating radar has not been used as most of the Mio-Plio-Quaternary filling deposit covering Eocene limestone contains clay layers which limits the applicability of the method (Roth et al. in Eng Geol 65:225–232, 2002)] and borehole drilling were undertaken in order to locate underground cavities and assess their depth, geometry, dimensions, etc. Laboratory testing and field work were also undertaken in order to determine both intact rock and rock mass properties. All the rock mechanics testing and measurement were undertaken according to the ISRM recommendations. It has been found that under imposed loading, the stability of the karst cavities depends on the geo-mechanical parameters (RMR, Rock Mass Rating; GSI, Geological Strength Index; E, Young modulus) of the host rock as well as the depth and dimensions of the gallery. It increases with RMR, GSI, E and depth and decreases as the cavity becomes wider. Furthermore, the calculation results show that a ratio (roof thickness to gallery width) of 0.3 and more indicate, a stable conditions. The results obtained in this work allow identifying and assessing the stability of underground karst cavities. The methodology followed in this paper can be taken as a road map in the establishment of a hazard map related to the studied phenomenon. This map will be a useful tool for the future urban extension planning in Cheria area.

Heavily karstified gypsum and dolomite aquifers occur in the Permian (Zechstein Group) of Eastern England. Here rapid active gypsum dissolution causes subsidence and abundant sinkholes affect an approximately 140-km by 3-km area from Darlington, through Ripon to Doncaster. The topography and easterly dip of the strata feed artesian water through the dolomite up into the overlying gypsum sequences. The shallow-circulating groundwater emerges as sulfate-rich springs with temperatures between 9-12 oC, many emanating from sinkholes that steam and do not freeze in the winter (such as Hell Kettles, Darlington). Water also circulates from the east through the overlying Triassic sandstone aquifer. Calcareous tufa deposits and tufa-cemented gravels also attest to the passage and escape of this groundwater.The sizes of the sinkholes, their depth and that of the associated breccia pipes are controlled by the thickness of gypsum that can dissolve and by the bulking factors associated with the collapsed rocks. The presence of sulfate-rich water affects the local potability of the supply. Groundwater abstraction locally aggravates the subsidence problems, both by active dissolution and drawdown. Furthermore, the gypsum and dolomite karstification has local implications for the installation of ground-source heat pumps. The sulfate-rich springs show where active subsidence is expected; their presence along with records of subsidence can inform planning and development of areas requiring mitigation measures.

Karst environments are characterized by distinctive landforms related to dissolution and a dominant subsurface drainage. The direct connection between the surface and the underlying high permeability aquifers makes karst aquifers extremely vulnerable to pollution. A high percentage of the world population depends on these water resources. Moreover, karst terrains, frequently underlain by cavernous carbonate and/or evaporite rocks, may be affected by severe ground instability problems. Impacts and hazards associatedwith karst are rapidly increasing as development expands upon these areas without proper planning taking into account the peculiarities of these environments. This has led to an escalation of karst-related environmental and engineering problems such as sinkholes, floods involving highly transmissive aquifers, and landslides developed on rocks weakened by karstification. The environmental fragility of karst settings, togetherwith their endemic hazardous processes, have received an increasing attention from the scientific community in the last decades. Concurrently, the interest of planners and decision-makers on a safe and sustainable management of karst lands is also growing. This work reviews the main natural and human-induced hazards characteristic of karst environments, with specific focus on sinkholes, floods and slope movements, and summarizes the main outcomes reached by karst scientists regarding the assessment of environmental impacts and their mitigation.

The monograph presents the natural features of Northern Istria, the karst and karst phenomena, karst hydrogeology, ecology and microbiology, and highlights in particular the vulnerability of the karst to various human activities. The main focus of attention is on karst water sources. In assessing their characteristics we used available knowledge of karst water on both sides of the border and supplemented it with new research on the transboundary area in question, which was based on field measurements and sampling, and chemical, microbiological and biological analysis of water. The collected findings form the basis for planning more effective monitoring of the quality of karst water sources, their protection and consequently the improvement of their quality.