Transcript Bridging the Gap Sam B. Upchurch SDII Global Corporation Tampa, Florida The Opportunity to Share Interests is Important • Cave divers provide access that most karst persons.

Bridging the Gap
Sam B. Upchurch
SDII Global Corporation
Tampa, Florida
The Opportunity to Share
Interests is Important
• Cave divers provide
access that most karst
persons cannot enjoy
• Cave divers provide
public awareness and
popularize problems
• Karst scientists provide
understanding and
credibility
Karst
Science
Cave
Exploration
What Divers Bring to the Table
• Local knowledge
• Access to locations that are otherwise
inaccessible
• Expertise
• Public involvement and awareness
What Karst Science Brings to
the Table
• Credibility and access
• Contributions to community welfare
• Understanding as to why or when caverns
systems develop
• Support by specialized scientists (biologists,
paleontologists, geochemists, karst
hydrologists)
Institutional Problems with Use
of Cave Divers
• Liability issues
• Requirement to use occupation cave diving
protocols
• Need for standard data collection protocols
• Need for quality assurance plans
• Absence of trained divers
Divers’ Problems With
Working With Institutions
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Loss of control of proprietary data
Excessive rules and regulations
Inability to communicate effectively
No funds for support
Needs are driven by schedules and budgets
How Karst Science Can
Become Involved
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Funding sources
Development of sampling protocols
Development of quality assurance plans
Find ways to involve the cave diving
community
• Train cave divers to recognize important
data (biota, karst features, cave sediments,
conduiting, flow systems, etc.)
How Divers Can Become
Involved
• Talk to the scientists and engineers and
share information
• Express interest in what scientists do and
ask to be involved
• Make interesting observations available
• Share cave maps
What We Need to Do Jointly
• Find ways to minimize institutional liability
concerns
• Maintain communication
• Develop a clear set of goals to enhance
communication and data transfer
What We Need to Do Jointly
(cont.)
• Portions of cavern system are
known
• Most of system is inaccessible
to divers
• We need to find ways to
integrate information
• We need to develop methods
to look at the interface
between the accessible cave
system and the bulk of the
springshed
Proposed Consortium Action
Items
• Development of glossary of terms
• Development of sampling protocols and a
quality assurance plan
• Develop training program to introduce cave
divers to technical issues and karst science
and karst scientists to cave diving
• Standardization of data and development of
data repositories