RESILIENCE OF MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS TO MAN-MADE DISASTERS IN THE URBAN UNDERGROUND SPACE

The resilience of municipal governments to man-made disasters in the underground space, like the collapse of a tunnel or a parking, is closely related to the economic impoverishment of our cities and the decay of the urban infrastructure. This is the "infrastructure deficit". Facing the global economic crisis, the majority of our governments are continuously cutting their budget, and this deficit is likely to grow, putting our quality of life, economic growth, and the prosperity at risk. The worst is maybe in front of us, and cities need to become more resilient to possible man-made disasters. In the majority of cases, municipalities are not seriously considering sustainable development, preferring deferred maintenance and forgetting disaster risk reduction in their action, and this is worst down there. The underground spaces of our cities are complicated places with challenges that require efficient and effective solutions. The problems include lack of financial resources for reettlar maintenance, lack of updated information, and the tendency often, of the Engineering Dept., to work in silo or to address urban problems one by one. In a market economy, the competitive pressures require public and particularly private organizations to operate near the margin, making harder to react before a disaster strikes. It is catastrophic when you don't know who the owner of an underground structure is. An improved approach for planning and managing our public and private underground structures has to be implemented. Downstream the planning, there is also an urgent need to shift from being responsive to disasters to being proactive, in minimizing hazards, reducing exposure and susceptibility, and enhancing capacity of civil servants. Local governments should pursue to be resilient, by reducing the probabilities of failure, and by insuring a quick response and effective recovery when a disaster strikes.