In this new paper published in Geomorphology, we (i) present and discuss a set of 21 metrics to characterize both the geometry and the topology of karstic networks, and (ii) to study their properties and their usefulness based on a set of more than 30 actual karsts mapped by speleologists. This data set includes some of the largest explored cave systems in the world and represents a broad range of geological and speleogenetic conditions allowing us to test the proposed metrics, their variability, and their usefulness for the discrimination of different morphologies.

The complete paper can be found here for free download.

Collon P., Bernasconi D., Vuilleumier C., Renard P. (2017). Statistical metrics for the characterization of karst network geometry and topology. Geomorphology, 283, 122–142. DOI: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2017.01.034