360° virtual tours of caves: An innovative tool for cave cadastre and public accessibility

Recent technological advances have opened up new possibilities for collecting, analysing and sharing information about speleological sites. This study explores the integration of 360° spherical imagery and Virtual Tours (VTs) to document five hard-to-access natural caves in the classic karst region. These immersive VTs experiences were embedded in the official speleological cadastre of the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, Italy (https://catastogrotte.regione.fvg.it/). The Autonomous Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia has officially integrated underground VTs into its institutional cave registry. This innovation not only improves the functionality of the cadastre but also sets a precedent for how immersive technologies can be effectively utilized within public geological and environmental databases. We analyse the benefits of integrating 360° VTs into a regional cave cadastre from the perspective of scientific documentation, promotion of speleological heritage, knowledge dissemination and public engagement. We also address the technical challenges that have been encountered during acquisition and post-processing and provide guidelines and future perspectives for the application of these technologies in cave research and digital documentation.