Predetermined? – Systems Thinking for the Urban Subsurface

Underground urban development is rapidly expanding. Like all forms of 'development', utilising the underneath of cities can present a range of possibilities and problems. Much underground urban development, however, has been conceptualised through a technical rather than a broader social lens. This is problematic, not least as these developments are usually financed with public money, while their governance is often realised through complicated and opaque public-private partnerships. In this context, the urban underground is often present as sub terra nullius: an epistemologically blank slate waiting to be exploited with the necessary technology and funding. In this paper, the author presents four analytical strata to help us to rethink how urban undergrounds are conceptualised and developed. Drawing on examples from Australia, she presents how we need to appreciate the more-than-human geographies of the underground (stratum 1); critically understand the dynamics of volumetric dispossession (stratum 2); question who owns the underground and how (stratum 3); and rethink how the underground is accessed (stratum 4). By engaging with these themes, we can explore ways to move subterranean urban development away from a technoscientific tunnelling decisionmaking process to one that engages with the social, political and economic implications of urban infrastructural projects.

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Predetermined? – Systems Thinking for the Urban Subsurface

Cited by 4 publications

References 26 publications

Design recommendations for sustainable urban underground spaces

Design recommendations for sustainable urban underground spaces

Systems approaches to urban underground space planning and management – A review

Challenging sub terra nullius: a critical underground urbanism project

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