Digging deep could be answer to urban crowding

Going underground could be an alternative for crowded cities seeking further development, according to experts meeting in Shanghai on Saturday, World Cities Day.

At present, more than 75 percent of people are living in cities, which imposes unprecedented pressures on land utilization and urban public infrastructures. And many cities underwent crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic, said UN Habitat Official Andre Dzikus.

This calls for the building of resilient cities which have the ability to go through and recover from future shocks, Dzikus told the meeting held at the Science Hall.

One solution for highly-populated cities to ensure healthy and sustainable development is to explore untapped underground areas, according to Liu Qianwei, chief engineer of the city’s housing and urban-rural construction management commission.

Underground space, known as the second space of a city, is taking on more and more functions with increasing urbanization. It’s the trend in the 21st century to explore what’s under our feet, he said at the Shanghai Summit on Global Urban Underground Space Development and Utilization.

Shanghai is home to nearly 25 million people. At present, more than 100 million square meters of underground land in Shanghai has been exploited, making the city a leader in using underground land, he said.

The city has the world’s longest mass-transit rail system on track, China’s largest and best sewage treatment plant, underground work of the hard-X ray facility, super deep rain water tank and large commercial and transportation space beneath the “Big Hongqiao” in the west of the city.

During the period of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025), advancing technologies such as 5G, artificial intelligence and The Internet of Things are expected to be widely used in  underground work to digitalize construction and promote the development of a smart, green and sustainable city, he said.

He Gangqiang, vice president of the Shanghai Urban Science Association, said the development of underground space could effectively resolve current problems such as lack of space to hold growing population and cars, as well as provide shelter amid disasters.

Also, it explores the possibilities of how a city could develop in different levels driven by the technological revolution, he added.