The underground is climate infrastructure: rethinking urban space for a hotter future
As Indian cities heat up, flood more frequently, and struggle to find space for new infrastructure, we continue to design almost everything on the surface.
What if part of the answer lies below our feet?
Across the world, underground and subterranean spaces are being used not only for tunnels and utilities but also as active climate infrastructure. These spaces offer thermal stability, flood resilience, efficient mobility corridors, integrated utilities, and long term urban adaptability. Yet in India, this potential remains largely unexplored in mainstream planning and climate conversations.
This session, jointly organised by the Tunnelling Association of India Young Members (TAIym), Tunnelling Association of India (TAI), ITA-AITES, and ITA-AITES Committee on Underground Space (ITACUS) during Delhi Climate Week, brings together experts from tunnelling, urban planning, climate research, energy systems and infrastructure practice to explore a simple but powerful idea:
The underground is not hidden infrastructure. It is climate infrastructure.
Over two hours, we will examine how underground design can contribute to cooling and thermal comfort, flood and stormwater management, integrated utility planning, district energy systems, and long horizon planning for Indian cities. The discussion will be technical, but deeply relevant to planners, engineers, policymakers, researchers and climate practitioners working on the future of urban India.
This is not a lecture. It is a working conversation.
Participants will be invited to engage, question, and contribute to a design dialogue on how Indian cities can begin to think differently about the space beneath them.
If you work on cities, infrastructure, climate, energy, mobility, water, or urban systems, this conversation is for you.