Heritage

The « heri­tage » sec­tor is a depart­ment of SISKA dedi­ca­ted to the docu­men­ta­tion and pro­tec­tion of kars­tic heri­tage. Pro­jects in this area draw on the know­ledge and skills of SISKA staff in site reme­dia­tion, bios­pe­leo­lo­gy and geo­he­ri­tage.

There are many unau­tho­ri­sed dumps in kars­tic ter­rain (chasms, caves and dolines). This waste is in direct contact with the ground­wa­ter, which can have conse­quences for the qua­li­ty of drin­king water.The pre­sence of waste may have a signi­fi­cant impact on the state of conser­va­tion of these par­ti­cu­lar geo­lo­gi­cal sites.

Nume­rous ana­lyses have shown that these old dis­po­sal sites are dan­ge­rous, with high levels of hea­vy metals. SISKA orga­nizes clean-up cam­pai­gns in seve­ral can­tons (VD, NE, VS, JU, BE). Over the past 20 years, more than 200 sites have alrea­dy been reme­dia­ted.

The bios­pe­leo­lo­gy plat­form is a link bet­ween cavers inter­es­ted in under­ground fau­na and spe­cia­lists in dif­ferent groups of under­ground orga­nisms. It enables dis­co­ve­ries that pro­vide impor­tant infor­ma­tion on habi­tats and bio­geo­gra­phy to be pas­sed on to inter­es­ted resear­chers. By acting as a relay, the plat­form helps to prevent the loss of infor­ma­tion about the under­ground envi­ron­ment. It is also a link to the spe­cia­list ser­vices in the can­tons and to those res­pon­sible for geo­tope pro­tec­tion.

The plat­form’s acti­vi­ties are sup­por­ted by the Scien­ti­fic Spe­leo­lo­gy Com­mis­sion of the Swiss Aca­de­my of Natu­ral Sciences (scnat) and are part of the natio­nal pro­gramme for the conser­va­tion of spe­leo­lo­gi­cal and karst heri­tage sup­por­ted by the FOEN.

SISKA is res­pon­sible for car­rying out inven­to­ries of kars­tic sites (sin­kholes, dolines, lapies), geo-heri­tage assess­ments and site mana­ge­ment pro­po­sals (reme­dia­tion, pro­tec­tion, enhan­ce­ment).

For rela­ti­ve­ly com­plex or major pro­jects in kars­tic envi­ron­ments, we can use our expe­rience to assess their fea­si­bi­li­ty and reduce their poten­tial impact on the envi­ron­ment. In par­ti­cu­lar, we deal with impacts on ground­wa­ter, sub­ter­ra­nean fau­na, the sub­ter­ra­nean cli­mate and the kars­tic land­scape.