Preface

What is a cave? [1] Walker (2008) defined caves as: "Imagine a place that's dark and cool. That icy air chills your body on a hot summer day. A river flows out of rock. Stone icicles drip wa‐ ter. A group of bats suddenly appears. All of these things can happen in a cave."

Caves are natural underground holes finding openings on the surface. Almost every country in the world has caves. Most caves are small and form in karsts taking long time. They have many chambers, entrances, and interconnecting passages. The largest single cave passage was discovered in Vietnam, the Son Doong Cave, with a length of 80 meters and a depth of 4.5 kilometer.

"Speleology" is the scientific discipline used for cave investigation. The first cave studies were undertaken by French archeologists, which later on spread worldwide. Cave studies that find scientific exploration by using different disciplines are first applied on determining habitats of early humanity and afterward focused on their archeological and biological properties. Throughout time, a lot of effort was spent on cave art. Besides, the use of subterranean rivers in caverns and their importance as roost sites for bats and species are focused as primary re‐ search studies. Caves have become tourist destinations because of their natural and cultural heritage, while the unique fauna and flora in caves are required to be managed and protected. Its chemical, physical, and biological effects are important for the living entities, for instance, inhabitants of colonies of bats or species.

Today, evidence of past cultures can be found in caves by means of artworks and archeologi‐ cal remains around the world. The size, elongation, and the width/length of caves began to be determined by archeologists and speleagloists through excavation and the use of lasermeter. Each year, several teams of scientists undertake major expeditions to discover new caves, while the formation of caves serves scientific problems that need to be clarified.

Nowadays, the past environment can also be explored by series of geophysical measurements in order to study the stability of galleries, foundations, structures, etc. Most common methods of direct measurements are known as probing, sounding, excavation, test pits, and trenches. These methods are destructive and costly and provide information depending on the subsur‐ face conditions over large areas. On the other hand, geophysical techniques are nondestructive and may be applied to mapping sinkholes, fractures, and continuations of caves with high ac‐ curacy and efficiency.

This volume provides references of the results of methods and extensive case studies applied on important caves in Europe and Asia carried out by several researchers. The results will help many researchers in geoscience, archeology, climatology, and biology. In this volume, three sections discuss the following topics: (1) Geomorphometric Analysis of 3D Cave Map‐ ping, (2) Bats in Caves, and (3) Geophysical Application for Cave Detection and Geoecological Assessments of Water Chemistry in Karst Aquifers. A brief information of each research given in this volume is provided below.

The geometric parameters of cave morphology using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) were ap‐ plied on Gomantong Cave in Malaysia Borne in the chapter "Characterization of Macro and

Micro-Geomorphology of Cave Channel from High Resolution 3D Laser Scanning Survey: Case Study of Gomantong Cave in Sabah, Malaysia" by Idrees and Pradhan. The identification of macromorphological and micromorphological features of the Gomantong Cave was ach‐ ieved by 3D models.

In the study "Aspects of Cave Data Use in a GIS" by G. Albert, the geographic information system (GIS) was used to analyze cave survey data on how to work with archive and new survey data and how to handle maps, scans, and sampling data. The chapter focused on the importance of procedures of data management, quality control, and automation of cave sur‐ vey data.

Caves as hibernacula and the effect of temperature and bat hibernation are discussed in the study "Bats and Caves : Activity and Ecology of Bats Wintering in Caves" by J. Zukal, H. Ber‐ ková, H. Banďouchová, V. Kováčová, and J Pikula. The authors showed the importance of the flight activity at the cave entrance and the bat movement activity inside the cave.

In the study "Important Caves in Turkish Thrace for Bats: Dupnisa Cave System and Koyun‐ baba Cave," by S. Paksuz, two important caves in Turkish Thrace showing different microcli‐ mate characteristics were discussed as a result of the species composition, colony structure, seasonal population dynamics, roosting habits, and roosting requirements of bats. It indicated that the protection of Dupnisa Cave System and Koyunbaba Cave is very important for the future of bat populations in the region.

A review was present of the results from various investigations on drainage, rivers, sinkholes, and ground water in the agricultural area of North Lithuania karst region in the study "Inves‐ tigation of Water Quality in the Agricultural Area of Lithuanian Karst Region" by A. Rudzian‐ skaitė. It showed that chemical composition of research water depended on the type of soil, meteorological conditions, and land use.

In the study "ERT and the Location of Mining Cavities in Anisotropic Media: A Field Exam‐ ple," by M. Matias and F. Almeida, a field study was applied on an old mining area to demon‐ strate that 2D resistivity data—Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT)—can be strongly affected by local anisotropy that masks the presence of cavities in ERT data modeling. The authors addressed the importance of the field survey design.

#### **Reference**

[1] Walker SM. Caves. Minneapolis, USA: Lerner Publications Company; 2008. ISBN-13:978-0-8225-6734-9

> **Dr. Savaş Karabulut** The Chamber of Geophysical Engineering Branch of Istanbul İstanbul, Turkey

> > **Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mualla Cengiz Cinku** Istanbul University Faculty of Engineering Department of Geophysical Engineering İstanbul, Turkey

**Geomorphometric Analysis of 3D Cave Mapping**

Micro-Geomorphology of Cave Channel from High Resolution 3D Laser Scanning Survey: Case Study of Gomantong Cave in Sabah, Malaysia" by Idrees and Pradhan. The identification of macromorphological and micromorphological features of the Gomantong Cave was ach‐

In the study "Aspects of Cave Data Use in a GIS" by G. Albert, the geographic information system (GIS) was used to analyze cave survey data on how to work with archive and new survey data and how to handle maps, scans, and sampling data. The chapter focused on the importance of procedures of data management, quality control, and automation of cave sur‐

Caves as hibernacula and the effect of temperature and bat hibernation are discussed in the study "Bats and Caves : Activity and Ecology of Bats Wintering in Caves" by J. Zukal, H. Ber‐ ková, H. Banďouchová, V. Kováčová, and J Pikula. The authors showed the importance of the

In the study "Important Caves in Turkish Thrace for Bats: Dupnisa Cave System and Koyun‐ baba Cave," by S. Paksuz, two important caves in Turkish Thrace showing different microcli‐ mate characteristics were discussed as a result of the species composition, colony structure, seasonal population dynamics, roosting habits, and roosting requirements of bats. It indicated that the protection of Dupnisa Cave System and Koyunbaba Cave is very important for the

A review was present of the results from various investigations on drainage, rivers, sinkholes, and ground water in the agricultural area of North Lithuania karst region in the study "Inves‐ tigation of Water Quality in the Agricultural Area of Lithuanian Karst Region" by A. Rudzian‐ skaitė. It showed that chemical composition of research water depended on the type of soil,

In the study "ERT and the Location of Mining Cavities in Anisotropic Media: A Field Exam‐ ple," by M. Matias and F. Almeida, a field study was applied on an old mining area to demon‐ strate that 2D resistivity data—Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT)—can be strongly affected by local anisotropy that masks the presence of cavities in ERT data modeling. The

[1] Walker SM. Caves. Minneapolis, USA: Lerner Publications Company; 2008.

The Chamber of Geophysical Engineering Branch of Istanbul

**Dr. Savaş Karabulut**

**Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mualla Cengiz Cinku** Istanbul University Faculty of Engineering Department of Geophysical Engineering

İstanbul, Turkey

İstanbul, Turkey

flight activity at the cave entrance and the bat movement activity inside the cave.

ieved by 3D models.

future of bat populations in the region.

meteorological conditions, and land use.

authors addressed the importance of the field survey design.

vey data.

VIII Preface

**Reference**

ISBN-13:978-0-8225-6734-9

**Characterization of Macro- and Micro-Geomorphology of Cave Channel from High-Resolution 3D Laser Scanning Survey: Case Study of Gomantong Cave in Sabah, Malaysia**

Mohammed Oludare Idrees and Biswajeet Pradhan

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.69084

#### **Abstract**

Three-dimensional documentation of hypogene cave morphology is one of the major applications of laser scanning survey. This chapter presents applications of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) survey for analyzing endogenic cave passage geomorphologic structure and morphometry using 3D meshing, high-resolution 3D texture modeling for geovisualization, and its potential for cave art documentation. To achieve this, multiscale resolution 3D models were generated; one using the mesh model for macro-morphological analysis and the other with the full-resolution scan to produce high quality 3D texture model for identification of micro-morphological features. The mesh model of the cave makes it possible to analyze the general shape, distinguish phreatic tube from post-speleogenetic modified conduits and carry out morphometric measurements including the cave volume and channel surface area. The 3D texture model provides true to live visualization of the cave with exceptionally high level of accuracy and details that would be impossible to obtain with direct observation by visiting the site or from the mesh model. The model allows discerning different speleogenetic phases, karstification processes and micro-morphologies such as wall and ceiling seepage, hanging rocks, fractures, scallops, ceiling flush dome, pockets, bell-hole and avens. Also, the texture model permits identifying cave arts and engravings along the passages

**Keywords:** virtual geomorphology, texture model, cave, passage failure, terrestrial laser scanning, Gomantong cave

© 2017 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
