Jensen, Sarah2024-03-162024-03-162024https://hdl.handle.net/1828/16142British Columbia contains over a thousand known caves, with new discoveries each year. These subterranean environments hold unique archeological, biological, cultural, geological, hydrological, paleontological, and recreational value. Due to their delicate nature, locational data is often hidden in hopes of protecting these unique environments. Currently, much of the provincial knowledge is held by a few select community members, with no long-term database strategy. A new community-maintained database may prove beneficial, limiting potential loss of information and more importantly, help support provincial conservation efforts. Working with the British Columbia Speleological Federation, based on needs expressed by the members of the community, this project entails the creation of a new cave and karst database. Methods include anonymous surveys of cavers with various experience levels, observations, and review of existing database structures. Results show members of the caving community strongly desire certain aspects of information to be included over others: 88% of respondents indicated desire for the cave survey to be locationally linked, 83% indicated desire for a linked entrance picture, and 80% indicated desire for included information on the cave length and depth. Results also revealed complexities found within the caving community regarding staggeringly different opinions on who should be able to access and update the database. Upon completion of the database, it will be gifted to the British Columbia Speleological Federation to utilize as a community maintained living database. Improved utility should encourage frequent information updates and therefore further karst related conservation efforts, in terms of protecting caves and karst from industry operations.encaveskarstdatabasecommunity-engaged researchconservationPoster