KarstConduitCatalogue: a dataset of LiDAR derived point clouds for the analysis of karstic conduit geometry and morphology

Abstract

Abstract. In mature karst aquifers, networks of interconnected conduits focus and control water flow and solute transport. To improve the knowledge of the multi-scale geometry of typical conduits, we acquired a data set of point clouds and triangulated surface models of 16 different underground caves: KarstConduitCatalogue (Racine et al., 2025a, available at https://doi.org/10.60544/sbjr-z851). We employed terrestrial and mobile laser scanning workflows as fast and reliable methods for acquiring a dense point cloud of wall surfaces in enclosed spaces. These collected data can be used for many different purposes: evaluation of geometrical descriptors, direct numerical simulations of flow and transport, geomorphological mapping, structure and fracture mapping, etc. In this paper, we present the various assets derived from the acquisition. The conduits presented herein span a variety of karst massifs of Western and Central Europe, from low-elevation karst plateaus to higher-elevation Alpine aquifers.