Foreword

Abstract

A special section of Acta Carsologica is dedicated to the successfully concluded 5-year-long global UNESCO IGCP Project No. 598.
IGCP/SIDA 598 “Environmental Change and Sustainability in Karst Systems (2011−2015)” is the 5th karst-related IGCP project sponsored by UNESCO/IUGS and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). It is a successor to IGCP 299, IGCP 379, IGCP 448, and IGCP 513 projects. The project was proposed and co-led by Zhang Cheng (China), Chris Groves (USA), Martin Knez (Slovenia), Jiang Yongjun (China), Augusto Auler (Brazil), Bartolome Andreo-Navarro (Spain), and Yuan Daoxian (China). The main objectives of the project are to better estimate the carbon sink potential from carbonate rock dissolution on continents by improving the approaches; to reveal the responses of the hydrogeological behavior of karst aquifers and water resource processes under the influence of different weather and climate events; to improve assessments methods for groundwater vulnerability to contamination; to quantify the records of environmental change within karst water, sediments, and speleothems that provide information over various timescales.
During the implementation of the project, more than 200 scientists from 40 countries were involved in the project’s annual meetings, symposia, and field excursions. In line with the four objectives of the project, the new developments of IGCP/SIDA 598 were published in the journal Episodes in 2015 as the project’s final report.