Underground space and urban sustainability: an integrated approach to the city of the future

Abstract

The use of underground space is not a recent novelty. Its use was primarily defined in regards to survival reasons; protection from natural hazards. Currently, there is a notable increase of underground space applications especially in urban environments. The field of underground space uses is vast in response to various reasons: for commuting and transporting goods to shopping centers, housing and even farming facilities and storage facilities, mining and geothermal energy to nuclear waste disposals. This paper focuses on examining underground space use in today’s urban environments, specifically in urban centers adopting an interdisciplinary and comprehensive approach. This research work introduces the eight global goals for sustainable development based on the United Nations sustainability goals. The methodology used takes into consideration the existing social and economic setting in the cases under investigation, which include both hypothetical models and practices, as well as applied examples of underground spaces in use internationally. Based on two different models of economy, the circular economy and the doughnut economy this paper highlights the principles that should be embedded to achieve resilience and sustainability during the construction and operation of urban infrastructures emphasizing on the spatial contribution of underground developments, on an economic, environmental and furthermost social perspective. By looking into the infrastructural construction of underground spaces, we wish to articulate on their spatial production through the relationships that emerge with the urban environment, and thus examine the balanced evolution of the underground space and its uses. Focusing on determining the underground space’s eco-system will allow for further understanding of its social dimensions and active processes of production, as a spatial node on an intertwined web of spatial networks formulating our urban environments