Abstract: Various practical problems encounterd in karst terrains, which covqr an area of about one-fifth of the whole territory of China, may be summed up into three main aspects, namely, the prediction of karst ; the evaluation of karst; as well as the techniques for detection and experiment in karst research. Owing to the uneven distribution of karst, and the less understanding of the regularities of karst development, karst, prediction still remains at a lower level, e.g. in groundwater exploration for wa...