Geological Society of America

T190 Advances in Cave and Karst: A Tribute to the Distinguished Career of E. Calvin Alexander Jr.

Tuesday, 27 September 2016
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 504

DEVELOPMENT OF THE MINNESOTA KARST FEATURE DATABASE FOR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, HAZARD ASSESSMENT, AND HYDROLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS

Paper number: T190-4
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 8:45 AM – 9:00 AM

Authors

Yongli Gao Presenting Author
University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, TX
Robert G. Tipping
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, St. Paul, MN
E. Calvin Alexander
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN
Jeffrey A. Green
Division of Ecological & Water Resources, Rochester, MN

Abstract

In the past two decades, a karst feature database (KFD) of southeastern Minnesota has been developed that allows karst feature distributions to be displayed and analyzed across existing county boundaries. The central Database Management System (DBMS) is a relational GIS-based system interacting with three modules: spatial operation, spatial analysis, and hydrogeology modules. The first KFD includes tabular data stored in Microsoft Access and a spatial component managed in ESRI ArcView. In recent years, the database was converted to a single, relational database with both tabular and spatial components edited in ESRI ArcMap. Read-only versions of the data are available in GIS format for public use via web services. A series of spatial analysis has been conducted to investigate spatial distributions of karst features and sinkhole hazard assessment using data stored in the KFD. The metadata developed in the Minnesota KFD has been adapted to inventory and study karst features at local and regional scales in many karst areas. Future development plans of the KFD include the implementation of the hydrogeology module by integrating water chemistry, hydrograph, and dye tracing data and the delineation of karst features into more manageable units.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7

doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-288085

© Copyright 2016 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.