Objectives
The project aims at monitoring the hypogeal cryosphere in the high-altitude karst areas of the Italian administrative region Friuli Venezia Giulia (FVG). In this regard, the interactions between internal and external cryosphere and climate system will be studied, along with the impacts of present climate change on groundwater resources. In the first phase of the project, the FVG Regional Speleological Inventory will be implemented, with tailored sheets describing the underground cryosphere. CryoKarst also aims at developing and testing near-range remote sensing techniques for 3D surveying of permanent ice deposits within caves, and in the high altitude karstic environments of FVG with the goal of studying their spatio-temporal evolution.
To optimize the updating times of the Regional Speleological Inventory as well as plan medium to long-term monitoring and given the high number of caves with ice deposits currently present in FVG, the CryoKarst project was structured following a citizen science approach. In this regard, a survey protocol was drafted and volunteer cavers were trained to correctly and unambiguously characterize hypogeal ice deposits.

Project Partners
• Geological Survey of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Administrative Region (Italy)
• Società Meteorologica Alpino-Adriatica (Italy)
• Ente Parco Naturale delle Prealpi Giulie
• Dipartimento di Matematica e Geoscienze dell’Università di Trieste