TRANSFORMATIVE APPROACHES TO UNDERGROUND INFRASTRUCTURE: ROAD TO NET ZERO AND BEYOND

АУТОР(И) / AUTHOR(S): Kelwalee Jutipanya, Lewis Makana, Aryan Hojjati, Nicole Metje, Dexter VL Hunt, Emma JS Ferranti, Anthony J Hargreaves, Joanne M Leach, Christopher DF Rogers

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DOI:  10.46793/ACUUS2025.3.12.79

САЖЕТАК / ABSTRACT:

The urgency to address climate change and achieve net zero targets underscores the critical role of underground infrastructure in considerations of urban resilience and sustainability. This paper leverages insights from the „Road to Net Zero“ (RtNZ) initiative in the UK, integrating advanced methodologies such as carbon optioneering tools and autonomous robotics. By addressing the complexities of underground systems, the research presents a cohesive framework for sustainable urban development and infrastructure management.

Drawing on the RtNZ Design Options Framework, the paper explores opportunities to minimize the carbon emissions for four alternative design options for streetworks: trenching, minimum dig techniques, trenchless technologies, and autonomous robotics. Actions in support of carbon reduction form part of a structured pathway to address systemic challenges in subsurface management and highlight the importance of integrating innovative solutions for sustainable infrastructure development.

The integration of data-driven tools, such as the RtNZ Optioneering Tool that accounts for all social, environmental and indirect economic consequences of streetworks, combined with advanced thinking from projects such as Mapping and Assessing the Underworld, offers robust methodologies to quantify impacts, mitigate risks, and optimize design decisions. Pipebots, as a future vision, exemplify transformative solutions to subsurface challenges, combining autonomous capabilities with enhanced ecological stewardship. The overarching threads of sustainability, resilience, and health and safety form part of this ‘total value analysis’, which takes a whole subsurface perspective.

КЉУЧНЕ РЕЧИ / KEYWORDS:

Streetworks, Sustainability, Resilience, Optioneering, Decarbonization

ПРОЈЕКАТ / ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council under grant numbers EP/F065965 (Mapping The Underworld), EP/I016133 (Resilience of Critical Local Infrastructures), EP/J017698 (Liveable Cities), EP/K012398 (iBUILD), EP/N010523 (Self-Repairing Cities), EP/K021699 (Assessing The Underworld), EP/P013635 (UKCRIC National Buried Infrastructure Facility) and EP/R017727 (Coordination Node for UKCRIC) and EP/S016813 (Pervasive Sensing of Buried Pipes). More specifically, the authors also gratefully acknowledge the financial support of Transport for London (TfL) under its Lane Rental Funds and the intellectual contributions from Road to Net Zero collaborators at TfL, the Highway Authorities and Utilities Committee (HAUC), GeoPlace and EA Technology.

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