Project Outline

Beginning at the 2004 International Geological Congress in Florence, Italy and the 2004 International Transdisciplinary Conference on Sustainable Karst Development in Hanoi, Vietnam, this project is proposed as the successor to Project 448: World Correlation of Karst Geology and Relevant Ecosystems, approved by the IGCP Scientific Board in 2000, and which will publish its final report in 2004. Project 448 is the most recent of three successful karst-related projects carried out under the auspices of IGCP, which also included Project 299: Geology, Climate, Hydrology and Karst Formation (1990-1994) and Project 379: Karst Processes and the Global Carbon Cycle (1995-1999).

An irony is that many of the world's significant karst areas occur in poorly developed economic regions, in part due to the physical challenges that these landscapes often present with regard to water supply, agriculture, and urban development. Thus, resources are often limited to address these significant problems. The main purpose of the proposed project is to encourage international cooperation to increase understanding of karst water resources with regard to both ecological and human health concerns, and to promote the sharing of ideas, experiences and resources in developing solutions to karst water resource challenges.

We propose a transdisciplinary approach to address the four major areas of emphasis for the project:

• Relation of hydrology to the function and health of karst ecosystems;
  
• Water supply in karst regions;
  
• Water-related environmental problems in karst regions;
  
• Aqueous geochemistry of karst aquifer/landscape systems

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