Environ Geol (2009) 58:235–237
DOI 10.1007/s00254-008-1608-2
EDITORIAL
Current perspectives on the environmental impacts and
hazards in karst
Mario Parise Æ Jo De Waele Æ Francisco Gutierrez
Received: 6 May 2008 / Accepted: 6 October 2008 / Published online: 30 October 2008
Springer-Verlag 2008
Karst geo-ecosystems are highly fragile environments that are
suffering a progressive degradation caused by human
activities in many regions of our planet. The interactions
between Man and karst environments have been relevant since
Greek and Roman times (Nicod et al. 1997), but the resulting
detrimental effects became particularly significant from the
industrial revolution. Despite the long history of human-
induced impacts on the karst environments and damage
caused by hazardous karst processes, these prob-lems were
largely overlooked by the scientific community till the
beginning of the 90s. Fortunately, both the per-ception of the
importance of the karst systems and the scientific efforts
devoted to their understanding have increased considerably in
recent times (Ford and Williams 2007). The results of some
investigations have been pub-lished in several special issues
(Catena supplement, Environmental Geology, Oklahoma
Geological Survey Circular, Geological Society of London
Special Publica-tion, Engineering Geology) (Williams et al.
1993; Burri et al. 1999; Johnson and Neal 2003; Parise and
Gunn 2007; Gutierrez et al. 2008c; Parise et al. 2008) and
conference proceedings (Sauro et al. 1991; Beck 2003).
Subsidence related to sinkhole activity is the most
important hazard in karst landscapes (Beck 2003; Waltham
M. Parise (&)
National Research Council, IRPI, Bari, Italy
e-mail: m.parise@ba.irpi.cnr.it
J. De Waele
University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
e-mail: jo.dewaele@unibo.it
F. Gutierrez
University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain
e-mail: fgutier@unizar.es
et al. 2005). In many regions, financial losses caused by
sinkholes are raising considerably due to the human-
induced increase in the probability of occurrence of sink-
holes and the development of hazardous areas (Gutierrez et
al. 2008a). Some approaches including, mechanical,
hydrogeological and predictive modelling (Salvati and
Sasowsky 2002; He et al. 2004), geophysical surveys
(Ardau et al. 2007), speleological studies (Klimchouk et al.
2002) and palaeokarst investigations (Gutierrez et al.
2008b) have provided enlightening insights on the pro-
cesses involved in the subsidence phenomena. Other
typical environmental problems in karst terrains are related
to water quality and quantity (Drew and Ho¨tzl 1999;
Goldscheider and Drew 2007; Ravbar 2007), construction
of infrastructures (dams, highways, tunnels) (Milanovic
2002), mining and quarrying (Gunn 2004) and other
human activities such as, agriculture, waste disposal or
urbanisation.
This special issue of Environmental Geology contains a
selection of peer-reviewed articles presented at the sym-
posium on ‘‘Natural and Anthropogenic Hazards in Karst
Areas’’, held in Vienna, Austria, on 16 April 2007, within
the framework of the Natural Hazards Programme of the
European Geosciences Union General Assembly. The
symposium was co-sponsored by the International Union
of Speleology (UIS) and by the International Geographical
Union (IGU) Commission of Karst Hydrogeology and
Speleogenesis.
Out of the 35 contributors to the session, 22 accepted
the invitation to submit a full paper and finally, 15 peer-
reviewed articles have been accepted and included in this
special issue. They cover many different geographical
areas where the interaction between karst systems and
human activities results in significant environmental
impacts and hazards: Europe (Austria, Bosnia
123
236
Herzegovina, Croatia, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain),
Jordan, Israel and Cuba. At the same time, the 15 contri-
butions of this issue deal with a wide variety of karst-
related environmental problems and offer insights into a
number of methodologies applied to study and mitigate
them.
The papers have been grouped into four categories. The
first group consists of those dealing with regional over-
views or assessments of impacts on karst. De Waele
evaluates the anthropogenic degradation of the karst envi-
ronments in the Sardinia island by applying a slightly
modified version of a recently proposed Karst Disturbance
Index (Van Beynen and Townsend 2005). This approach,
relatively simple and objective, could be applied also in
similar regions and is especially adapted to the Mediter-
ranean area. Podobnikar et al. evaluate the anthropogenic
impacts in an area of the classical karst of Slovenia using
data obtained from different sources of information (aerial
photographs, satellite images, topographic maps, etc.) and
managed in a GIS environment. Tuyukina describes the
impacts on the gypsum karst ecosystem of the Russian
taiga in the Pinega State Reserve (Arkhangelsk region,
northern Russia), particularly vulnerable to fire and ero-
sion. The author also documents the destruction of the
karst ecosystem caused by gypsum mining.
The second group of articles has karst water as the main
protagonist, and therefore includes those contributions
dealing with hydrogeology, floods, and water manage-
ment. Molerio Leo`n and Parise describe the main sources
of pollution to karst aquifers in Cuba, a country where
about 80% of the water supply relies on karst, conse-
quently, there is an urgent need to safeguard such precious
resource. The main identified pollution sources in the
island are sea water intrusion, agricultural practices, waste
disposal, industrial activity, and mining and oil exploita-
tion. Moving back to Europe, Plan et al. make an
interesting attempt in better defining the vulnerability
zonation in the high alpine karstic Hochschwab Plateau of
Austria, with respect to those obtained by using two
common vulnerability assessment methods, COP (Vias et
al. 2006) and PI (Goldscheider 2005). Characterisation of
the karst features allows the authors to improve the results
of the conventional methods, taking better into account
morphology, morphogenesis and hydrology, using
qualitative and quantitative properties of karst depressions
and sinking streams. Then, a subgroup of three articles is
dedicated to the karst of Apulia, in southern Italy. Polemio
et al. propose an approach to evaluate the degradation risk
in this peculiar coastal karstic aquifer based on monitoring
and analysing the spatio-temporal changes in the ground-
water quality. Through measurements of piezometric level,
combined with spatial and multi-temporal analyses of
chemical and physical data, the authors distinguish areas
123
Environ Geol (2009) 58:235–237
with different vulnerability to seawater intrusion and
define a salinity threshold between fresh and brackish
groundwater. Andriani and Walsh examine the flash flood
that hit part of the town of Bari on October 2005, and
particularly the destruction of a park located in an aban-
doned limestone quarry. The recorded damage derives
from activities promoted by a land-use planning, which did
not take into account the peculiarity of the karst environ-
ment. Lopez et al. describe geomorphology, pedology and
hydrology of a group of lakes and their surroundings in
Conversano (central Apulia), which played a very
important role for the human settlements in the area.
Notwithstanding such historical importance, the lakes have
experienced undesirable changes in the last years, high-
lighting the need to safeguard these karst landforms and
the water they host.
The third group consists of three articles devoted to
specific case studies of applied geology. Bonacci and Ru-
binic deal with the well-known problems related to the
construction of a reservoir in a typical karst area (Dreyb-
rodt et al. 2002; Johnson 2008). The Boljuncˇica Reservoir
in Istria (Croatia) illustrates some of the difficulties com-
monly encountered when dealing with such engineering
works in karst, and in particular water losses through new
swallow holes. Gisbert et al. propose an interesting study
of the environmental and hydrogeological problems related
to excavation of a tunnel for a high-speed railway in
southern Spain. The artificial cavity has altered the
hydrogeological behaviour of the karst aquifer, creating
problems due to discharge of new springs that required the
adoption of ad hoc measures. Roje-Bonacci et al. analyse
the role of karst in favouring rock failures along road cuts
in the Dinaric karst of Croatia. Presence of karst features,
combined with the stress release (unloading) produced by
excavation, resulted in instability problems whose causal
factors are discussed in the paper.
Finally, the fourth group of articles deals with sinkholes
and subsidence. Closson and Abou Karaki, in a first attempt to
bring together an overview of the human-induced geo-logical
hazards related to halite dissolution along the Dead Sea coast,
examine sinkholes, subsidence and landslides phenomena on
both shores of the Dead Sea. There, the lake level is currently
dropping at a rate of about 1 m/yr due to withdrawal of water
from the fluvial systems that feed the lake (Bookman et al.
2006). Mancini et al. report on the subsidence caused by salt
mining in Tuzla city, Bosnia Herzegovina. Here, ground
subsidence affects the built-up area since the 50s at rates as
high as 40 cm/year. The long-term series of topographical
data and recent GPS monitoring reveal the tight correlation
between the average subsidence rate and the annual amount of
salt extracted. Pueyo An-chuela et al. illustrate the advantages
and limitations of the GPR surveys (Ground Penetrating
Radar) for detecting
Environ Geol (2009) 58:235–237
palaeo-collapses and cavities in the surroundings of Zara-goza
city in NE Spain. Their study indicates that GPR is able to
characterise karst features, and therefore may be of some help
in sinkhole susceptibility evaluations. Kaufmann and
Romanov, using geophysical methods (gravimetry and
geoelectrics), characterise a small sinkhole developed in 2006
alongside the Jerstedter Bach river, in the northern Harz
foreland of northern Germany. The surveys allowed them to
hypothesise the likely continuation of the sinkhole, and to
identify the old meandering course of the nearby river.
The Guest Editors of this special issue would like to
acknowledge all the scientists and researchers that con-
tributed with their work to the success of the symposium in
Vienna. Special thanks to the referees who, with their
valuable efforts, have greatly helped to improve the quality
of the manuscripts. We would also like to express our
warmest gratitude to the Natural Hazards Group of the
European Geosciences Union, for providing the opportu-
nity to organise and convene the symposium, and to the
Editor-in-Chief of Environmental Geology, Philip LaMo-
reaux, for accepting our proposal to publish this special
issue.
References
Ardau F, Balia R, Bianco M, De Waele J (2007) Assessment of
cover-collapse sinkholes in southwest Sardinia (Italy). In: Parise
M, Gunn J (eds) Natural and anthropogenic hazards in Karst
areas: recognition, analysis and mitigation, geological society of
London, vol 279. Special Publication, Geological Society of
London, London, pp 47–57
Beck BF (ed) (2003) Sinkholes and the engineering and environ-
mental impacts of Karst. Geotechnical Special Publication of the
American Society of Civil Engineers, 122:737
Bookman R, Bartov Y, Enzel Y, Stein M (2006) Quaternary lake
levels in the Dead Sea basin: two centuries of research. In: Enzel
Y, Agnon A, Stein M (eds), New frontiers in Dead Sea
paleoenvironmental research. Geological Society of America
Special Paper, 401:155–170
Burri E, Castiglioni B, Sauro U et al (1999) Karst and agriculture in
the World. Int J Speleol 28B(1–4):185
Drew D, Ho¨tzl H (1999) Karst hydrogeology and human activities.
AA Balkema, Rotterdam, p 322
Dreybrodt W, Romanov D, Gabrovsek F (2002) Karstification below
dam sites: a model of increasing leakage from reservoirs.
Environ Geol 42:518–524
Ford DC, Williams P (2007) Karst hydrogeology and
geomorphology. Wiley, Chichester, p 562
Goldscheider N (2005) Karst groundwater vulnerability mapping—
application of a new method in the Swabian Alb, Germany.
Hydrogeol J 13:555–564
237
Goldscheider N, Drew D (2007) Methods in Karst hydrogeology.
Taylor & Francis, London, p 264
Gunn J (2004) Limestone as a mineral resource. In: Gunn J (ed)
Encyclopedia of caves and Karst science. Fitzroy Dearborn,
New York, pp 489–490
Gutierrez F, Cooper AH, Johnson KS (2008a) Identification, predic-
tion and mitigation of sinkhole hazards in evaporite karst areas.
Environ Geol 53:1007–1022
Gutierrez F, Guerrero J, Lucha P (2008b) A genetic classification of
sinkholes illustrated from evaporite paleokarst exposures in
Spain. Environ Geol 53:993–1006
Gutierrez F, Johnson KS, Cooper AH et al (2008c) Evaporite karst
processes, landforms and environmental problems. Environ Geol
53:935–1105
He K, Wang B, Zhou D (2004) Mechanism and mechanical model of
karst collapse in an over-pumping area. Environ Geol 46:1102–
1107
Johnson KS (2008) Gypsum-karst problems in constructing dams in
the USA. Environ Geol 53:945–950
Johnson KS, Neal JT (2003) Evaporite karst and engineering/
environmental problems in the United States. Oklahoma Geo-
logical Survey Circular, p 353
Klimchouk AB, Lowe DL et al (2002) Implication of speleological
studies for karst subsidence hazard assessment. Int J Speleol
31(1–4):199
Milanovic P (2002) The environmental impacts of human activities
and engineering constructions in karst regions. Episodes
25(1):13–21
Nicod J, Julian M, Anthony E (1997) A historical review of man-
karst relationships: miscellaneous uses of karst and their impact.
Rivista di Geografia Italiana 103:289–338
Parise M, De Waele J, Gutierrez F (eds) (2008) Engineering and
environmental problems in karst. Eng Geol 99(3/4):91–254
Parise M, Gunn J (eds) (2007) Natural and anthropogenic hazards in
karst areas: recognition, analysis and mitigation. Geological
Society Special Publication, 279. Geological Society of London,
London, p 202
Ravbar N (2007) The protection of karst waters. Carsologica,
Postojna-Ljubljana, 6: 254
Salvati R, Sasowsky ID (2002) Development of collapse sinkholes in
areas of groundwater discharge. J Hydrol 264:1–11
Sauro U, Bondesan A, Meneghel M et al (1991) Proceedings of the
international conference on environmental changes in Karst
areas I C.E.C K.A. Universita` di Padova, Padova, p 414
Van Beynen P, Townsend K (2005) A disturbance index for karst
environments. Environ Manage 36(1):101–116
Vias JM, Andreo B, Perles MJ, Carrasco F, Vadillo I, Jime´nez P
(2006) Proposed method for groundwater vulnerability mapping
in carbonate (karstic) aquifers: the COP method. Hydrogeol J
14(6):912–925
Waltham T, Bell F, Culshaw M (2005) Sinkholes and subsidence:
karst and cavernous rock in engineering and construction.
Springer, Berlin, p 382
Williams P et al (1993) Karst terrains: environmental changes and
human impacts. Catena supplement 25:268
123