Re-promoting Sustainable Underground Urbanization for Developed and Developing Countries in Our Modern History

Abstract

During recent decades of overwhelming exploration of underground resources (groundwater, geothermal energy, minerals) and underground spaces (tunnels, caverns, buildings), there has been a lack of in-deep investigation on international agenda to look at the degree of political awareness of sustainable underground development. International organizations advocating and debating the use of underground space and its innovative contribution to urban futures, have been sustained through intensive interaction through conferences and working groups. These active moves involved public and private actors from developed and developing countries, with a rapidly increasing interest to explore the various and viable usage of this natural resource – subsurface space. From 2014 to present, as an international consensus built up by a long-term advocating efforts addressed through a series of World Urban Forums, United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) recognized the necessity of promoting best practices of the sustainable use of underground space for resilient urban development in modern era and for implementing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of UN 2030 Agenda. This article will present a first retrospect on the modern history of research initiation and international promotional agenda for sustainable underground urbanization. Qualitative archive data analysis and city case study demonstration will be used to showcase international stakeholders’ awareness enhancement, policy promotion and universal implementation.