Dr. Yong-Kang Qiao is an assistant professor at the Department of Geotechnical Engineering and the Research Center for Underground Space, Tongji University, China. He obtained his BEng, MSc and PhD degrees in civil engineering from the Tongji University, China. He was a visiting scholar at the Centre for Spatial Data Infrastructures and Land Administration (CSDILA) at the University of Melbourne from 2018 to 2020. He serves as the Vice Secretary-General in multiple academic societies, including the Underground Space Specialized Community of Chinese Society for Tunnel and Underground Engineering, Underground Space Branch of the Chinese Society of Rock Mechanics and Engineering, Urban Underground Space Specialized Committee of the Chinese Society for Urban Studies, and China Wise Infrastructure Industry-University-Research Institute Collaborative Innovation Platform. His research interests include urban underground space planning and design, spatial data infrastructure, underground land administration and urban analytics. He has coordinated three national research programs, and participated as a main researcher in urban underground space planning projects in more than ten Chinese metropolis. He authored more than 50 technical papers related to utilization and development of urban underground space in peer reviewed high quality international journals and conference proceedings.

Brief Introduction to the Report

It is widely recognized that urban underground space (UUS) use is of great importance for sustainable urban development. In reality, however, it is far from persuasive to compare the descriptive values of UUS with the construction costs. Moreover, the value of UUS uses shows both positive and negative externalities. A growing number of cases have shown that the lack of quantification of external benefits and costs might result in unreasonable planning and land administration of underground space use, hence compromising urban sustainability. In this regard, the monetarization of external UUS values will become the turning point in the decision-making process of UUS development. This study measures the externalities of UUS use to urban sustainability based on the service replacement cost method (SRCM). Using UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as value metrics, the definitions and index system of UUS assets and UUS services are established. Then based on multi-source spatial data of a case study area, both positive and negative externalities of UUS use are monetarized and visualized with the aid of GIS platform. The valuation results are utilized to establish a set of new approaches for sustainability-oriented UUS development strategies of planning evaluation and land price setting.