The Survey and Mapping Working Group of the Informatics Commission tackles the various issues related to cave/karst survey and mapping. Where a significant amount of work is needed on a particular task, it creates a subgroup to help focus on that work. Anyone who wants to participate in the work of a Group, and countries who want to appoint a Country Delegate to the Group or one of its sub-groups for final voting, are invited to contact the respective Chairman (click on Chairman's name for contact details). UIS voting is on the basis of one vote per interested country. The sub- Working Groups to date are:
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The most recent issue tackled by the working group was survey and mapping grades. This WG has now finished discussion, and voting by the WG country delegates has been completed.
If you have ideas about what topic we should tackle next, please email the Chairman.
Forums: The working group's forums can be found at: http://www.uis-speleo.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=63
[ UISIC Home ] [ UIS ]The Working Group has been discussing survey and mapping grades. Originally introduced by BCRA (UK), they were later adopted by other organizations. The grades assess the precision and accuracy of a given survey, and discuss the methods and materials used. Although these grades are widely known, the UIS has never previously discussed and adopted a grading system. The main debate was held at the 2009 ICS in Kerrville, USA, where it was decided to use the Australian grades as a starting point for discussion, and then further discussion continued via our Grades Forum. Final voting was completed by the delegates from interested countries in August 2010.
Download the official version of the UIS Survey and Mapping Grades here. (Revised 2012-09-14 with minor cosmetic updates.)
Forum: http://www.uis-speleo.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=63
Country Delegates:
| Argentina | Redonte, Gabriel | gredonte@gmail.com | Yes |
| Australia | Warild, Al. | alw@exemail.com.au | Abstain |
| Austria | Plan, Lukas | lukas.plan@NHM-WIEN.AC.AT | Yes |
| Brazil | Kok, Geribello F. | fabio@geribello.com.br | Yes |
| Croatia | Bocic, Neven | nbocic@geog.pmf.hr | Yes |
| France | Ournie, Bernard | b.ournie@free.fr | Yes (*no answer) |
| Germany | Müller, Ralph | ralphfmueller@aol.com | Yes (no answer) |
| Hungary | Moga, Janos | jmoga@freemail.hu | Yes |
| Italy | Pani, Daniela | daniela.pani@gmail.com | Yes |
| Japan | Ishikawa, Norihiko | snow63@jcom.home.ne.jp | Yes |
| Lebanon | Ghada, Salem | ghada-salem@live.com | Yes |
| Mexico | Montano, Juan Ant. | espeleo99@yahoo.com | Yes |
| Netherlands | Burgers, Yoxz | yoxz@hccnet.nl | Yes (no answer) |
| Romania | Tudor, Tamas | tudor.tamas@ubbcluj.ro | Yes |
| Russia | Lavrov, Igor | karst@permonline.ru | Yes (no answer) |
| Serbia | Calic, Jelena | j.calic@sezampro.rs | Yes |
| Sweden | Agrell, Erik | agrell@chalmers.se | Yes |
| Switzerland | Häuselmann, Philipp | praezis@speleo.ch | Yes |
| Turkey | Guner, Noyan | n.guner@mta.gov.tr, noyan_guner@yahoo.com | Yes (no answer) |
| UK | Atkinson, Andy | andrew@wotcc.org.uk | Yes (no answer) |
| USA | Kambesis, Pat | pat.kambesis@wku.edu | Yes |
| Venezuela | Carreño, Rafael | rafaelcarreno2004@yahoo.es | Yes (no answer) |
Collaborators:
| Australia | Grimes, Ken | ken.grimes@bigpond.com |
| Brazil | Hardt, Rubens | rubens_hardt@yahoo.com.br |
| Croatia | Baksic, Darko | baksic@gmail.com |
* Before the vote it was stated that absence of a vote would be taken as a "Yes".
The Karst Surface Map Symbols Working Group developed the symbols list over several years, also in consultation with the Karst Commissions of the International Geographical Union (IGU) and the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH). Final voting by the Working Group Country Delegates was in May 2006.
You can find the Karst surface
symbols at: http://www.sghbern.ch/surfaceSymbols/symbol1.html
They are also published in Zeitschrift
für Geomorphologie, Supplementbände, Band 147.
See: http://www.borntraeger-cramer.de/pubs/isbn/bo/zeitschrfg-344321147X-desc.html
The UIS Working Group country delegates voting were:
| Argentina | Redonte, Gabriel | Yes |
| Australia | Grimes, Ken | Abstained |
| Austria | Plan, Lukas | Yes |
| Brazil | Hardt, Rubens | Yes |
| Croatia | Faivre, Sanja | (no answer) |
| France | Ournie, Bernard | Yes |
| Germany | Mueller, Ralph | Yes |
| Hungary | Moga, Janos | (no answer) |
| Japan | Norihiko, Ishikawa | Yes |
| Lebanon | Ghada, Salem | Yes |
| Mexico | Montano, Juan Ant. | Yes |
| Russia | Lavrov, Igor | Yes |
| Serbia | Calic, Jelena | Yes |
| Sweden | Agrell, Erik | Yes |
| Switzerland | Häuselmann, Philipp | Yes |
| Turkey | Guner, Noyan | Yes |
| UK | Atkinson, Andy | Abstained |
| USA | Kambesis, Pat | Yes |
| Venezuela | Carreño, Rafael | Yes |
The Survey and Mapping Working Group completed its work on Basic Cave Mapping Symbols in May 1999. The now standard symbols arose from extended discussions by many people, then final voting by the Working Group Country Delegates.
The agreed set of Basic Cave Mapping Symbols can be found at: http://www.carto.net/cgi-neumann/cave_symbol.pl
The country delegates were:
| Argentina | Redonte, Gabriel | Yes |
| Australia | Grimes, Ken | Yes (abstained*) |
| Austria | Neumann, Andreas | Yes |
| Brazil | Hardt, Rubens | Yes |
| France | Aulas, Jean-Pierre | Yes |
| Germany | Müller, Ralph | Yes |
| Russia | Lavrov, Igor | Yes |
| Switzerland | Häuselmann, Philipp | Yes |
| UK | Atkinson, Andy | Yes |
| USA | Petrie, Garry | Yes |
| Venezuela | Carreño, Rafael | Yes (abstained*) |
* Before the vote it was stated that absence of a vote would be taken as a "Yes".
Between July 2007 and May 2008 the list was in revision. It was not a major revision as the setup of the standards took place only in 1999. However the Working Group decided to leave them unchanged.
The delegates were:
| Argentina | Redonte, Gabriel |
| Australia | Grimes, Ken |
| Austria | Plan, Lukas |
| Brazil | Hardt, Rubens |
| Croatia | Bocic, Neven |
| France | Ournie, Bernard |
| Germany | Müller, Ralph |
| Hungary | Moga, Janos |
| Japan | Ishikawa, Norihiko |
| Lebanon | Ghada, Salem |
| Mexico | Montano, Juan Ant. |
| Russia | Lavrov, Igor |
| Serbia | Calic, Jelena |
| Sweden | Agrell, Erik |
| Switzerland | Häuselmann, Philipp |
| Turkey | Guner, Noyan |
| UK | Atkinson, Andy |
| USA | Kambesis, Pat |
| Venezuela | Carreño, Rafael |
Now hibernating, this Group was working on a standard format for exchanging and archiving data relating to cave surveying and mapping. The format will use XML and associated standards, and the work will be co-ordinated and compatible with that of the UISIC Working Groups for Cave Data Field Definitions and for a general Cave Data Exchange Format. The format (a Markup Language) is called CaveXML. Further information can be found at the format section of the Cave Data Exchange Project page.
After much discussion about the format over the period 2001-2005, and for a while losing our server to a hacker,
CaveXML for survey and mapping unfortunately got too hard, interest waned, and the group went into
hibernation. If anyone wants to tackle any of the tasks identified,
or resurrect and lead the group on this survey and mapping project, they would be very welcome - please
email the WG Chairman. The web pages and mailing list archive reflecting the discussion and progress
of the Working Group can be found at:
http://www.cavexml.uis-speleo.org.
In the meantime, UISIC's more general Cave Data Exchange Format Working Group will be working on CaveXML for exchanging general cave and karst data - everyone is welcome to help! Maybe when this is established, we'll be able to take a fresh look at exchanging cave survey data.
[ Top ]At the 1997 UIS Congress in Switzerland, the UIS Informatics Commission (UISIC) was asked by the Chairman of the original Swiss Speleo Society's Working Group for Cave Mapping Symbols to form a new working group within the Commission to further this work. After discussion the proposal was accepted, and was included in UISIC's 4-year plan at the subsequent UIS General Assembly.
The reasons for forming the Survey and Mapping Working Group within UISIC were:
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