GrottoCenter Blog

The exploration mission carried out in June highlighted the need for a detailed guide explaining how to organize such a mission. I am proposing an initial version of a document that outlines how to organize the study of an area. It is available here: https://wiki.grottocenter.org/wiki/Mod%C3%A8le:Fr/Investigations (only in French for now)

This is a situation frequently encountered in documents related to the caving community: the organization itself is designated as the author. It is a simple solution to implement when many club members have contributed, but it creates problems—particularly for Grottocenter. Paul wanted to initiate a discussion on this topic; he offers an analysis, a comparative study of existing solutions, and a recommendation for Grottocenter. I invite you to check out his work and contribute if you find the subject interesting. https://github.com/GrottoCenter/grottocenter-front/issues/1419

As I understand the situation, Clément went looking for cave entrances listed on Grottocenter—data originally sourced from the BRGM database. It seems he didn't find the entrance itself, but he suggested that Paul set up a compass feature on the phone to help orient the map. This feature is now active on both the general map and the specific map view for an entrance (when displayed in full screen), which should make your fieldwork easier. The second new feature relates to revision history: this now tracks changes to entrance names and recently added information, covering all types of entrances.

You’ll notice that Grottocenter is running faster this morning. That’s because it’s using Vite, thanks to work done by Paul. Here are the other advantages of Vite: - For developers, the code builds in 1 second instead of 60. - Instead of declaring 1,000 dependencies, only one is needed. - SVG images are handled very easily. - Long-running calculations are managed more efficiently. - Maintenance is now possible, whereas React—which was used until yesterday—is no longer maintained. But above all, it will be possible to create an app with the same features as Grottocenter that allows for data storage for offline use. Paul is very keen to get started on this development.

Zouhair has produced a comprehensive text on the guidelines for managing scientific data within an open science framework. https://github.com/GrottoCenter/grottocenter-api/issues/1726 This is a non-technical topic that offers fresh perspectives and useful leads. The text is clear and concise. Thanks, Zouhair.

As part of the development work assigned to him, Zouhair has just released a feature that displays the laws applicable within a protected area. This information appears on the massif's page and on the page for each entry located within the massif.

Today's new feature is truly impressive. Paul has introduced an update to the rigging sheet that allows you to use predefined abbreviations to describe your recommended anchor setup. Once your rigging sheet is complete, Grottocenter displays information on the estimated rope length and the number of obstacles to be negotiated. Beyond the quality of the work itself, Paul is helping us move forward by incorporating features that will allow Grottocenter to contribute to caver safety. Let he who has never run short of rope or anchors cast the first stone.

Throughout June, the documentation team worked on a complete overhaul of the wiki to provide you with a comprehensive user guide showcasing all the new features. Chloé created two highly instructional videos that have been embedded in the wiki. Karl, Jean Donatien, Aissatou, Bernard, Constance, Chloé, and Frédéric all contributed to this work on the wiki. An English version is currently being finalized. https://wiki.grottocenter.org/wiki/GrottoCenter:Fr/User_Guide https://wiki.grottocenter.org/wiki/GrottoCenter:En/User_Guide

As of yesterday, Clément and Paul have introduced a system on Grottocenter where only copies of images are displayed. Whether you are viewing an entry or a document page, or scrolling through a gallery on mobile or desktop, you will see only copies sized specifically for display. This reduces data traffic across networks and speeds up loading times significantly, while still allowing you to download the original via a dedicated button.

Paul has released his work on the feature for creating and editing entries. Everything is better organized thanks to the visual icon guide. Mandatory fields are displayed more clearly. And the feature for creating a network or removing an entry from a network is more easily accessible. Paul is making Grottocenter accessible to everyone!

We want to better define Grottocenter users. To do this, we are outlining typical user profiles. Visitor? Explorer? Tell us who you are and whether you identify with these descriptions. https://github.com/GrottoCenter/grottocenter-api/wiki/Personas

Paul has introduced updates that make using Grottocenter easier when working with networks. First of all, quick search results no longer return document-related answers but now include networks.

Before heading off on vacation, Chloé sent us a video providing an overview of the account management features on Grottocenter. You probably aren't aware of everything that's possible—come and find out! https://youtu.be/ukqers2mzgA

Paul has just released an improvement to the feature that allows you to designate an organization as responsible for a geographic entity. He has also updated document management to prompt for confirmation when creating a document without an attached file, and to fix a bug —identified by Benjamin— that was complicating the import of certain file types. However, the most impressive update concerns network visualization on the map. It is now possible to visualize —via links— all the entries that make up a network.

Zouhair has just released a feature that prevents the creation of duplicate entries. When you enter the name of a new Grottocenter entry, the system displays the names of caves located near the one you are typing. When you position your cursor, caves near your chosen location appear.

Last night, Zouhair released a feature that allows you to specify the responsible organizations for a given country, region, or mountain range. For example, on the France page, I listed the FFSpéléo and Spéléo Secours Français. You can do the same for pages relevant to you or for which you have information. I encourage you to take this opportunity to update the information on the organization's page as well. Thanks, Zouhair, for this excellent work.

That's right—new features aren't taking a vacation (for now) on Grottocenter. - The number of massifs displayed on the homepage now accurately reflects the actual count. - At Bernard's suggestion, the map size on the cave entrances page now adjusts its height to match the content on the right side of the screen—it looks much better! - And you can now mark all notifications as read. Thanks to Paul and Clément for these handy new features.

A great discovery this morning: Paul and Clément have brought back the feature that lets you mark the caves you’ve visited. You can now view the caves you’ve visited—as well as those visited by other account holders—on a map within the "Activities" tab of your public page and your account. We are all cavers: it’s a wonderful way to showcase our adventures. The recent updates may have caused some errors, so please check your list of trips.

A few small changes have been made over the last 24 hours to address specific requests: Nathan felt it didn't make sense to display a license when a document wasn't linked to an actual file > the license is no longer displayed. Jean Donatien felt that the term "layers" in the context of deleting polygons (massif perimeters) wasn't quite right > this has been fixed. Paul also took the opportunity to make it clear on the network entrance page that there are descriptions available at the network level as well. He also updated the visualization of caves or entrances when linking one entrance to another or to a network. These are small details, but they help improve your user experience. Thanks, Paul.

This time, the new features are located at the bottom of the Grottocenter homepage. Paul has created a new "Best Practices" section; it hosts the page on bats as well as a new page—developed by Bernard—outlining the rules to follow to ensure environmental conservation. In the technical section, a new button has appeared, providing access to a tool for analyzing data collected in Grottocenter. It may seem simple, but a great deal of work went into it: when you are logged into Grottocenter, you are automatically connected to this data analysis platform.

Chloé has just produced and published a video showing you how to use all the features of the Grottocenter search engine. You'll learn everything in just 5 minutes—kudos on a fantastic job!

Ferdinando is responsible for publishing a very comprehensive article about the Wikicaves association and the recent developments of Grottocenter in the June issue of Underground Vision magazine. This is a way to raise awareness of the project and to keep track of its progress in 2026. https://speleomedit.tetide.org/magazine/published-numbers/june-2026-n2/

Intense work took place last night; Clément and Paul worked tirelessly, and this morning you can use the feature that allows you to import sensor data. This is a very important feature that required a tremendous amount of work. But it allows us to offer a service that is both essential for studying caves and currently unavailable as free, open-source software, freely usable online, enabling all processing, long-term data archiving, and making it available to anyone who needs it. Congratulations and thank you, Clément, for this excellent achievement!

To meet a need expressed by the prospecting team working in the Montpellier area and by the French Cave Rescue Service (Spéléo Secours Français), you can now download your search results for cave entrances in CSV, GPX, KML, and GeoJSON formats. Less visible but very important: Clément has also updated the search engine indexes so that the results provided better match your expectations. The result may look the same, but you get it much faster.

To find out, each page includes a link to the revision history page. Paul has just updated these pages to make them more readable and perfectly organized. It's now very easy to attribute each contributor's role in the collaborative work.

To address a need expressed by Bastien, who is part of the team improving cave information, Paul has released a new feature on the map. You can now enter coordinates and view the corresponding point. Here are the coordinate systems you can use and examples for testing: WGS84 decimal: 45.1179, 5.4786 Decimal with cardinal/degree symbol: 45.1179° N, 5.4786° E DMS: 45° 7' 4.6" N, 5° 28' 43" E DDM: N 45° 07.066 E 005° 28.717 Lambert 93 (EPSG:2154): 843000, 6450000 (X/Y order or inverted) Lambert III cartography (EPSG:27573): 722000, 3165000 (X/Y order or inverted)

We want to make Grottocenter easier to use in the field. With this in mind, Paul has just implemented two very practical features: Now, when you create or edit an entry, you can view the map in full screen and pinpoint your location (if GPS is enabled). Try this new feature out in the field!

Thank you, Paul, for this new feature. Now the documents are presented perfectly, well-organized, and clearly. The result is impressive for every type of document: Photos/Images Collections Journals Articles Videos Audio Files

Grottocenter easily accessible. Thanks to recent work by Paul, you can access this information on the map and filter caves according to this criterion. It's your turn: help us improve the quality of the information by sharing the data you have.

A revolution has just taken place on Grottocenter thanks to the work done by Zouhair. Grottocenter now allows you to chat with other registered users: this feature gives you the opportunity to connect with other contributors and thus get up-to-date information or information that is not publicly available about caves. You can also receive email notifications when a message is sent to you: an easily configurable tool to manage your conversations. What do you think of this new service?

The Grottocenter team is doing important work to make it possible to provide, archive, and utilize all the scientific data collected in caves and karst environments. The first building block is in place: a Superset instance will soon be accessible at https://bi.grottocenter.org, allowing you to perform the analyses you need using the data archived in Grottocenter. Thank you to Clément for this beautiful and promising achievement.

Paul has just published a new homepage with better organized and more accessible information, especially on the phone. The contact form is particularly prominent to encourage you to get in touch if you encounter any difficulties.

Paul has just released a very handy new feature: When you're on the map, right-clicking allows you to create an entry at the point you've selected. Know of a cave? Is it not in Grottocenter? It's very quick to do.

The Grottocenter website, published by the Wikicaves association, aims to provide detailed information on underground cavities to anyone who needs it. This information, provided by anyone who wishes to contribute through citizen science, helps protect this very fragile environment. Government agencies, researchers, managers of protected sites, and speleological organizations thus have access to the data they need. Your mission: Much of the data available in Grottocenter is historical data that is inaccurate and incomplete. Your mission will be to: Take charge of a geographical area Improve the quality of the data Go into the field to verify the existence and location of cavities To join the team: https://www.jeveuxaider.gouv.fr/missions-benevolat/103837/benevolat-wikicaves-2 Communication with the team will be conducted in French.

Now, when you are logged into Grottocenter, you can fully manage your account. In particular, you can request to receive email notifications: these include the validation of the documents you submit and, for leaders, information related to your subscriptions.

Each year, following the Annual General Meeting, the members of the Board of Directors elect the members of the Executive Committee. The following are elected: President: Frédéric Urien Treasurer: Dominique Ros Technical Manager: Clément Ronzon International Exchange Manager: Didier Borg

Paul has completed the necessary developments to make Grottocenter fully accessible in 15 languages. Join me in thanking him!

Paul has just released a new version of Grottocenter. Information is divided into 3 tabs, greatly simplifying use on your phone and giving you a quicker overview of available information. In the image, you can see a SCIENCES tab. It's not yet available, but it will soon allow you to share the scientific data you collect in caves and karst environments.

Paul has just released a new feature on the entries page. Now you can copy coordinates, display the point on an OSM, Google, or Grottocenter map, and also display these coordinates in the coordinate system of your choice. He has also added a feature that allows you to right-click on the map to select your coordinate system and copy the coordinates into it.

Starting April 23rd, when you create an account or log in for the first time, you will receive an email allowing you to confirm the validity of your email address. This verification will allow us to offer you, in a few weeks, a service that will allow you to communicate with other users without your email address being shared. Thanks to Zouhair for this excellent work.

How can we offer even more criteria for searching on Grottocenter while simultaneously making that search easier to access? That's what Paul has just implemented, and it's a truly impressive achievement that I encourage you to explore right away.

Paul and Clément have just launched a very important new service. It allows users to indicate, for each cave, the rules to follow to protect the environment: presence of bats, following a marked path, cave-specific rules, and wearing clean clothing. It is also possible to share information related to risks present in the cave: pollution, CO2, rockfalls, and flooding. Finally, it is possible to report tourist caves to offer access to the underground world to those unfamiliar with it. Do you know a particular area well? Would you be willing to provide this information about the caves you know and share your experience with these new features? Thank you for your help.

Is the data on Grottocenter of good quality? Excellent question, and one we're answering today. On each entry's page, you have access to an overall score and a score by category, as well as explanations of how that score was calculated. Thanks to Paul and Clément for their excellent work.