THE FLORIDA CAVE DATABASE: A GIS OF UNDERWATER CAVES FOR HYDROGEOLOGICAL CHARACTERIZATIONS

Caves are one of the most hydrologically important but least understood and documented physical features in the Floridan aquifer. Though there are currently more than 50 mapped underwater caves in Florida and perhaps as many as 4000 above water caves in Florida that have either been mapped or located, these features are rarely included in hydrogeological investigations. The primary limiting factor has is access, particularly in Florida where many caves, and all of the longest caves, are fully saturated (underwater). Though very few professional hydrogeologists have actually been in an underwater cave in Florida, explorers have traditionally surveyed the trends and dimensions of the cave passages they explore and those maps now represent the most significant and extensive record of Florida’s underwater caves available to the professional hydrogeologist.

As with direct observation of the underwater cave environment, the problem with using the maps has been access, because the maps do not reside in a centralized location nor are they typically in a suitable format for inclusion in a hydrogeologic investigation. The Florida Cave Database project was initiated by the Florida Geological Survey Hydrogeology Program (FGS-HP) to compile and synthesize all available cave maps and cave location data into a centralized GIS compatible database. Ultimately, the purpose is to make cave maps more accessible to professional hydrogeological investigations, and to encourage their use in such endeavors.

To date, the Florida Cave Database includes 26 of the largest underwater caves in Florida digitized from maps and survey data provided by the National Speleological Society – Cave Diving Section and the Global Underwater Explorers – Woodville Karst Plain Project. Location, conduit trend, conduit dimension, water quality, flow direction, ownership, and land use include some of the data fields underlying point and line based shapefiles fully documented by metadata. The water quality component of the database will be rendered compatible with the Florida Springs database (also being developed by the FGS-HP). Though specific access issues remain to be addressed, all of the shapefiles are intended to be made available to hydrogeologists via the WWW. Further information on the Florida Cave Database is available at: www.hazlett-kincaid.com/FGS/cave-db/.