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7 Institutional, Educational, Research, and Workforce Capacity
Pages 187-206

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From page 187...
... A new framework is needed that will enhance societal capacity and the types of research, education, training, and practices needed for sustainable urban planning and infrastructure development. Societal capacity is greater than workforce capacity and includes: • Sufficient availability of appropriately trained and experienced engineers, planners, architects, technicians, and other professionals to teach, research, plan, design, construct, operate, and maintain effective and resilient underground facilities; 187 Underground Engineering Camera-Ready.indd 187 2/13/2013 10:55:16 AM
From page 188...
... Instead, the committee identifies common themes related to changes in approaches to urban planning and underground engineering education, research, and practice necessary to promote urban sustainability. In this chapter, the committee presents a series of observations, conclusions, action items, and research necessary to support the most productive use of underground engineering for sustainable urban development.
From page 189...
... Consideration of the spatial and functional interdependencies of surface and underground infrastructure during all phases of infrastructure life cycle is vital to urban sustainability. However, cultural and political conventions in the United States tend to recognize, systematically plan, and organize only the real estate and air rights on or above the surface, effectively ignoring the valuable and non renewable real estate beneath our feet (with the exception of resource extraction)
From page 190...
... Information management, infor mation technologies, and communication will be key in facilitating the complex but efficient research and the design, construction, operation, and management of underground infrastructure. Observation: Market forces in the United States encourage workforce capacity growth and urban and infrastructure development, but often in an ad hoc manner that may not be consistent with urban sustainability.
From page 191...
... An institutional framework that catalyzes sustainable development and ade quately revitalizes the U.S. educational and research capacity to address sustain able urban underground space is needed.
From page 192...
... Understanding ownership, liability, and responsibility for underground space becomes more important if infrastructure management is to support improved sustainability across the full complexity of interlinked underground systems. Safety related to failure of, for example, underground utilities also needs to be addressed.
From page 193...
... technological capacity in underground engineering can negatively contribute to economic growth and the global competitiveness of U.S.
From page 194...
... In the 1970s, there was intensive effort to improve underground construction technology as agencies recognized the growing need for underground space use in urban areas, particularly in conjunction with subway (with funding from the Urban Mass Transit Admin istration [UMTA]
From page 195...
... These include centers at the University of Delft in the Netherlands, Tongji University, Chongqing University and Nanjing Engineering Institute and other universities in China, and the Urban Underground Space Center of Japan. While University of Minnesota center was successful in terms of research activity and maintain ing its broad mandate, the lack of a stable base funding for its mission left it vulnerable to a university- and state-funding recession that resulted in its closure in 1995.
From page 196...
... Education and training has been integrated in some underground engineer ing programs including, for example, the tunneling and underground engineering group at the University of Illinois (1970s and 1980s) , the Underground Space Center at the University of Minnesota (1977-1995)
From page 197...
... university programs dedicated to mining engineering has also reduced sub stantially since the 1960s: fewer than 20 exist today. The decline of research in underground construction and tunneling in uni versities in the United States mirrors the fragmentation of U.S.
From page 198...
... Interdisciplinary research, education, and training that allow development of practical methods to determine, for example, the remaining useful life of utilities and services are needed. Consideration of topics such as how best to reuse or reconfigure underground space as technologies change are also part of performance and total lifecycle planning.
From page 199...
... Underground space development requires a long-term com mitment to technological advancements in an environment that is friendly to improved planning, innovation, and implementation. Potential actions: a.
From page 200...
... Some specific technology development challenges and opportunities for research that would aid a more holistic approach to integrated urban system design and operation are highlighted in previous chapters and in Boxes 7.4 and 7.5. LIFECYCLE APPROACHES Observation: Few data exist regarding the environmental and social impacts and lifecycle sustainability of urban development that can inform technology and administrative decisions related to long-term (decades to centuries)
From page 201...
... c. Develop quantitative methods to compare the value of underground space Underground Engineering Camera-Ready.indd 201 2/13/2013 1:32:27 PM
From page 202...
... Understanding whether, for example, urban underground development precludes good stewardship of underground water resources in a region may require quantifying the amount of evapotranspiration, groundwater recharge, flow patterns, and pollution, among other factors, enabled because of different construction techniques or the preservation of natural landscapes. Retrospective analyses inform strategic prospective lifecycle cost analyses that, ideally, become part of local and regional planning processes.
From page 203...
... Conclusion 9. Greater user acceptance and occupancy of underground infrastructure and facilities are likely if underground spaces are planned with more consideration of utility, ease of access, wayfinding, safety, and aesthetics.
From page 204...
... . Public acceptance and use of underground space will increase if underground infrastructure is more convenient and comfortable to use.
From page 205...
... Underground space can enhance urban sustainability only if the underground is thoroughly understood and if underground use and reuse and the protection of the natural and built environments are incorporated into long-term total urban infrastructure system planning. Potential actions: a.
From page 206...
... Mining Engineering.


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