Karst relief of the Mali me Gropa Massif, central Albania

Abstract

The mid-al ti tude moun tain mas sif of Mali me Gropa is lo cated in the cen tral part of Al ba nia, rises to an al ti tude of 1500–1800 m a.s.l., is com posed mostly of Me so zoic lime stone, and is char ac ter ized by ex ten sive sur face karst de vel op ment. The karst re lief is dom i nated by “doline” mor phol ogy in clud ing “po lyg o nal” karst. De tailed geomorphological anal y sis of the west ern part of the Mali me Gropa mas sif (so-called West ern Mas sif) by means of GIS meth ods is used to de ter mine and ex plain the morphometric and mor pho log i cal di ver sity of the area’s to pog ra phy. Based on a ho mo ge ne ity cri te rion, a num ber of geomorphological units with spe cific kinds of karst re lief have been dis tin guished within the mas sif. The dif fer ences in karst sculp ture con cern the size (di am e ter) of dolines and de pres sions, their depth, shape and sym me try, ori en ta tion, den sity of oc cur rence and spa tial pat tern, which pro vide the ba sis for dis tin guish ing geomorphological units. The spa tial dif fer en ti a tion of the karst re lief is ex plained by the in flu ence of fac tors which are evo lu tion ary (geo log i cal and geomorphological evo lu tion of the mas sif), hypsometric (al ti tude dif fer ence of ter rains) and geomorphologic-struc tural (in cli na tion of the slopes and lay -ers). The rel a tively poor ex pres sion of open karst con duits (i.e. caves and ver ti cal shafts) on the sur face of the mas sif may re -sult from the rel a tive im ma tu rity of the epikarst zone, the wide spread oc cur rence of re sid ual cover on the pla teau, and the ac cu mu la tion of large amounts of clay ma te rial in dolines and de pres sions. De tailed hydrogeological stud ies show, how ever, high karst per me abil ity and dom i nance of con duit flow. Con sid er ing the high geomorphological land scape and eco log i cal value of the area, it should be granted the sta tus of a na ture re serve or na tional park. Geomorphological and karstological re -search within the mas sif should be con tin ued as it rep re sents a type of karst found also in other parts of Al ba nia. This type of karst area is of great eco nomic (ground wa ter re serves) and nat u ral pro tec tion (en vi ron men tal) im por tance.