Development of urban underground space in coastal cities in China: A review

The development of urban underground space is a critical way to alleviate the lack of urban resources, and improve environmental conditions as well as residents’ quality of life, which has important practical significance. As the most densely populated and economically developed areas, coastal cities face many challenges in underground space development owing to their unique environmental geological conditions. This study examined the current situation of underground space development, academic research, technology application,evaluation methods, planning, and legislation in coastal cities in China. On this basis, it analyzed the future development trends, and presented reasonable suggestions for the critical scientific and technical problems faced by the development of underground space in coastal cities. The key suggestions are as follows: it is necessary to define and clarify the critical geological issues,distributions, and hazards that affect underground space development and major engineering construction in coastal cities; the land-sea integrated detection technology for sea crossing bridges and submarine tunnels needs to be studied; in evaluating the suitability of underground space in coastal cities, the land and sea area evaluation factors should be integrated; and the evaluation system of land-sea integration needs to be established.