ABSTRACT
During the last decade of the 19th century intensive construction of dams and reservoirs in karst regions began all over the world. The result was expensive failure in many cases. For many of these cases, the water reservoir never filled up despite extensive investigations and remedial works, ending in the site being abandoned. It was a time when designers and engineers did not entirely accept that understanding the role of geology as being important for the building of large structures at the surface or underground. The investigation techniques and technology of any remedial works were also at inadequate levels. As a consequence of these failures, many important lessons were learned when constructing in karst.
Dams with seepage beneath the foundations, reservoirs that were impossible to fill, water outbursts into tunnels, mines and other underground excavations, leakage from mine tailings and waste disposal facilities, thousands of induced sinkholes in urban and reservoir areas, and a wide spectrum of unexpected environmental problems have created a specific and important engineering branch - engineering karstology. The philosophy of engineering karstology can be defined with one simple phrase: expect the unexpected.
This book presents a working framework for identifying and evaluating a variety of the processes that present a risk for dams and reservoirs in areas with such complex geological and hydrogeological properties as are found in karstified rock masses.
