NYC Presents Under the Ground: Planning, Management and Utilization

Wednesday January 29, 2020

Town+Gown:NYC hosted its first Symposium event of Spring 2020: “Under the Ground: Planning, Management, and Utilization.” 

Debra Laefer of NYU/CUSP presented on the June 2019 CUSP workshop on subsurface issues and highlighted several issues to be resolved;  George Deodatis of Columbia presented on the effects of climate and weather on NYC’s subway system;  Priscilla Nelson of Colorado School of Mines presented on the relationship between urban resilience and deliberate subsurface use planning and management; and, Terri Matthews of Town+Gown updated attendees on the work of the Utilidor Working Group.

This discussion of how emergent interdependencies require inter- and intra-agency coordination between the public and private sectors considered:

• the importance of the urban subsurface for all stakeholders in the built environment, how disasters often force coordination between the sectors; 
• how early education about the underground can support a better future understanding of the space, thus contributing to an integrated urban planning perspective for built environment stakeholders; and 
• the need for systems to supply functions with redundancy