Evaluation of Karst Hazards for Civil and Industrial Buildings

The European part of Russia exhibits highly developed sulphate and carbonate karst. It mostly occurs within river valleys with relatively thin covering deposits. These conditions may induce karst collapses, which appear to be the main danger for civil and industrial buildings. Evolution of karst rocks includes several epochs of karst development, which causes complicated distribution of karst caves in karst rocks and, as the result, irregular distribution of karst caves on the surface. Karst hazards prediction is mostly reliable within the geotechnical system "Karst-Construction", using probability methods. This approach allows creating 3 types of antikarst protection (alternative design of construction arrangement on a plan, structural protection of a construction and plugging of karst caves beneath construction foundation) and selecting the optimum or the most effective version or their rational combination.