WKU Geoscience Team Returns
From China Cave Expedition
April 22, 2004
Bowling Green, Ky. - The water supply for thousands of people in China may be improved in part thanks to Western Kentucky University's expertise in karst research and cave exploration
.
Pat Kambesis, research associate in the Hoffman Environmental Research Institute within WKU's Applied Research and Technology Program, led a team of 11 expert cave explorers and surveyors on a recent three-week expedition to China's
Hunan Province. The team returned to the United States in mid-April.
The expedition supported a project that will eventually entail building a large in-cave dam along an underground river to raise water levels in the cave system almost 600 feet to make water more accessible to thousands of people in several poor and dry communities on a high plateau.
"A university institute being asked to come and help with an environmental problem in collaboration with Chinese officials is highly unusual," Kambesis said. "We didn't realize how unusual it was until we got there."
This project represents a significant accomplishment for the Hoffman Institute's nine-year China cave research program, said Dr. Chris Groves, institute director. In January, he and his wife Deana visited China to help plan the expedition, which took place in a remote area on the border between Hunan and Guizhou provinces of Southwest China.
To be near the cave area that the group explored, much of the expedition was based in a small Miao minority village. "The Miao people there spoke their own language, rather than Mandarin Chinese," Dr. Groves said, "so all communication had to go from English to Mandarin and then into Miao. Even with the communication challenges, the local people were very friendly and helpful to the expedition members."
The U.S. team, which included WKU geoscience graduate student Mark Graham as the geographic information systems (GIS) specialist, assisted karst hydrologists from the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and the Xiangxi (Hunan) Hydrogeology Bureau by mapping several large caves and an underground river on western Hunan's Guizhou Plateau.
The work was challenging, with the first U.S.-led cave diving ever to be attempted in China, including navigation of pits in some cases more than 400 feet deep.
"The Chinese groups had done assessments, but they couldn't access the underground river because of a lack of technology," Kambesis said. "Our team's divers explored the water-filled passages, while the rest of the team explored the shafts leading down into the cave system from the plateau surface above."
By raising the water level and filling a reservoir, the project would provide hydropower and a water supply for surrounding villages and a significant city, she said.
"Our next step involves putting together a report to summarize our field findings, provide maps, and make a site recommendation for the dam," Kambesis said. "The report will describe what we saw, suggest ways to make the project a success, and detail challenges facing Chinese engineers, including faults that could divert the underground river, if they decide to proceed. We will make them aware of the issues in the project."
A Chinese television crew from the Hunan provincial capital of Changsha followed the team's work and aired reports on the team's progress on the Chinese national evening news, Kambesis said. (Dr. Groves noted that with China's population surpassing 1.3 billion, the potential audience for the national news coverage represents one of the broadest university public relations events in WKU's history.)
Geography and Geology Department Head David Keeling said the Hoffman Institute's research in China and elsewhere around the globe is indicative of the department's efforts not only to "prepare students for success in a global society, but also to share our technological and scientific expertise with colleagues around the world."
According to Keeling, "this research effort by the Hoffman Institute may well improve the quality of life of tens of thousands of Chinese in Hunan Province. What better example to give to students that problem solving such as this can really make a difference in community development."
The researchers' efforts reflect an evolution of the Hoffman Institute efforts to become more applied by helping its Chinese colleagues develop solutions to the often-severe water-resource problems in southwest China's extensive karst areas. Of 80 million residents of the southwest China karst region, eight million live in conditions of poverty, exacerbated by difficult water resource challenges.
For more information, contact Chris Groves at (270) 745-5974 or the Department of Geography and Geology at (270) 745-4555. More WKU news is available on the World Wide Web at www.wku.edu. If you'd like to receive WKU news via E-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
