ABSTRACT
Caves are natural sub-surface hollows with an extremely complex three-dimensional (3D) morphology. The inherent mystery and natural beauty captivate human curiosity; therefore, the caves have become the subject of tourism but also research and protection. From a scientific point of view, the caves are a source of essential information about the past environment important for understanding contemporary conditions and changes of the environment. Generating highly detailed and accurate digital twins of caves provides means for improving their cartographic representation and use of geospatial analytical methods to study the cave surface. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has been demonstrated in the last decade to be the most suitable technology for such a task. Despite higher costs, TLS as an active technique overcomes the challenge of underground darkness in comparison with traditional tacheometry or digital cameras and lights needed for photogrammetry. This chapter demonstrates how TLS can be used in 3D mapping of a complex show cave, which is a part of 27,000 m long system of underground corridors formed inside a limestone plateau that spans the border between Slovakia and Hungary in Central Europe. The multifold TLS campaigns resulted in scanning over 5,000 m of corridors and experience in the scanning of various kinds of cave passages in diverse environmental circumstances. The acquired data improved the standard cave cartography, enabled research of cave ceilings and walls inaccessible in person, helped the cave management, and resulted in new interactive visualisations easily accessible via the Internet.
