A geographic meta-database of caves and underground structures in Turkey

Caves and underground structures are voids that can be natural or man-made. Besides this geological meaning, these voids, with peculiar environmental features, are important for many disciplines hosting diverse natural and cultural heritage. Having large karstic rock areas, different geomorphological structures, and climatic conditions, Turkey has a wide variety of caves. The relevant studies report that there are more than 40,000 caves in Turkey. Due to this large number, it is vital that all the spatial and non-spatial information on caves must be collected and stored correctly within a database structure. Through storing, retrieving, mapping, displaying, and analyzing geographic data capabilities, the Geographic Information System (GIS) can be used to manage the location-based information. The purpose of this study was to collect information about the unexamined caves and underground structures of Turkey as well as create a dedicated cave inventory. Therefore, a new GIS application called Geographic Information and Management System for Caves and Underground Structures (GIMSCUS) was developed to gather information from volunteers as a voluntary mapping source. For this purpose, the PostGIS database was used to store all the location-based information; GIS was used to analyze and map spatial data; and a virtual globe application was used to visualize the spatial data. Running on the Intranet network that is widespread all over Turkey and known to a user-friendly design, GIMSCUS was easily accessed by many volunteers. Thus, considerable new data (47.64% of the total data) were collected by the volunteers and provided to users within a short time. It is expected that these data will play an important role in: (1) land management and urban planning for preventing unforeseen hazards; (2) culture and tourism which is an important part of Turkey’s cultural heritage; and (3) hydrology for hydraulic structure building.