URBAN UNDERGROUND SPACES CONTRIBUTE TO NEW URBAN AGENDA

In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, participants from 173 countries have gathered from in February 2018 for the ninth World Urban Forum (WUF9).

Over 25,000 people have registered for WUF9, and during this week, some 470 organizations and representatives of Member States have come together to take part in nearly 560 official events. Out of over 1,000 applications, ITACUS[1] was chosen to host a side-event on ‘Underground Spaces for the Cities of the Future’.

[1] ITACUS is one of the four permanent committees of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, dedicated to underground spaces in urban environment.

  • An international event supported by the United Nations :

The event aimed at showing not only the contribution of underground space to the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, but also the practical tools that ITACUS has developed. Shipra Narang Suri of UN-Habitat stressed the importance of underground space in the urban context. The use of underground space can help cities remain compact, be energy efficient or find the space needed to include new functions in the existing city landscape, she indicated.

She also pointed out the need for dialogue between professionals: ‘Planning the underground space coupled with the development of legal frameworks will require planners and decision-makers to work together with new knowledge and understanding of the specific constraints and opportunities’.

Her words were underlined by Ric Stephens, president of ISOCARP, the International Society of City and Regional Planners. He specifically noted the way that ISOCARP and ITACUS have developed a collaboration over the years and how the awareness of urban planners is growing on the importance of underground space.

Together with ISOCARP, the International Society of City and Regional Planners, ITACUS is running the Young Professionals Think Deep Programme. The aim of this programme is to help cities look at planning issues by enabling a dialogue between professionals who work together for a week, focussing on a concrete urban planning case. This tool not only helps cities because it generates multiple solutions, the awareness among professionals is raised on underground space. In that sense the tool is all about capacity building.
ITACUS activity group leader Petr Salak and ISOCARP vice-president of Young Planning Professionals (YPP) Zeynep Gunay shared their enthusiasm with the audience on this programme.

  • The “Think Deep Programme”: global action for local environment

A second tool is the ITACUS National Action Think Deep Programme. Through the Member Nations of ITA, local Think Deep groups are started that discuss the use of underground space in their region. These groups are in a unique position as they can organise workshop on for example recommendations for changes in legislation. Although the concept of underground space is universal, application takes place in a local context. This is where National Think Deep groups can make a big difference. Petr Salak as co-founder of Think Deep UK and Abidemi Agwor of Think Deep Nija in Nigeria talked about the success of setting up these national groups.

Taking questions from the floor it became evident that there is an enthusiasm to look more at urban underground spaces. Although there are sometimes obstacles to be overcome, the tools that were shown and discussed could provide a valuable basis for this. The conclusion was that the role underground space can play in implementing the New Urban Agenda now has to permeate all levels of government.

 

An “Inclusive planning” is needed to develop resilient infrastructure that is needed for the cities of the future as just one example of how underground space can help implement
the New Urban Agenda and contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals 11 sustainable cities and communities.

During WUF9 the International Tunnelling and Underground Spaces Association (ITA) booth was a focal point for many visiting the exhibition. Awareness, advocacy and action applies as much to underground space as it does to the other issues being discussed at the world’s premier conference on cities.

http://wuf9.org/programme/side-events/urban-underground-spaces-for-the-cities-of-the-future/

More about the ITA: Founded in 1974 by the initiative of nineteen Nations, the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA) which aims are to encourage the use of the subsurface for the benefit of public, environment and sustainable development and to promote advances in planning, design, construction, maintenance and safety of tunnels and underground space, by bringing together information thereon and by studying questions related thereto. Since then, ITA has considerably developed. Presently, ITA gathers 74 Member Nations and 300 corporate or individual Affiliate Members.