Karst plateau drainage and sinkhole inventory

Where water goes when the ground has no streams, and which hollows are still moving.

Plate

Karst

ink on paper. Illustration.

Region

Limestone plateau, sample site B

Year

2026

Duration

5 months

Depressions found

212

Visited on foot

Marked active

Sample site and example figures. Replace with real project data.

The question

A road authority planned a new alignment across a plateau with no surface streams and asked where the ground could open.

Approach

A dense terrain model was searched for closed depressions. Each candidate was visited, measured and scored by depth, wall angle and signs of recent movement.

What we found

The inventory separated old, stable hollows from a small group showing fresh edges. The preferred alignment shifted by a few hundred metres to avoid that group.

Limits

Hollows under dense scrub are under-counted in any terrain model. We list them as a gap, not as zero.

All field studies

Next study: Coastal cliff recession, quarterly lines

Next step

Is the ground asking a similar question?

Tell us what must be decided and what evidence you already have. We will help define a useful first pass.

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