Karst sinkholes in urban areas in Florida

Background

Sinkholes are among the main features of karst areas, and are extremely widespread in Florida, one of the sites most known for their occurrence and the likely interaction with the built-up environment. The Tampa area, in turn, shows an high frequency of events, which origin derives from different types of sinkholes.

Purpose

The high frequency in the occurrence of sinkholes at Tampa and nearby areas points out the need to investigate the interactions among these phenomena and the anthropogenic environment, with particular regard to the effects that new sinkholes, or the evolution of those already known, might have on built-up areas.

Methods

The project was based on analysis of topographic maps, to identify those landforms related to occurrence of sinkholes. Production of thematic maps in GIS environment, and the related morphometric analysis, allowed to evaluate the main elements at the origin of the phenomena. Pluviometric analyses have been carried out on selected case studies to investigate the trigger of the sinkholes.