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
Ó 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 Hötzl 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
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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 Leòn 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
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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 Boljunčica 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.
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