Facing the challenges of exponential urbanisation

Pressing issues of urban daily life, from ease of commuting to security of the water supply; access to safe public spaces to the impacts of climate change; rapid expansion of urban areas to protections against pollution, these were among the wide-ranging issues under discussion at the World Urban Forum of the United Nations UN-Habitat agency last week in Cairo (4-8 November 2024). As part of the conversations, the ITA, International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association, and ITACUS its Committee on Underground Space, attended the proceedings and with a booth in the Urban Expo on a mission to raise the profile of underground urban spaces and infrastructure in tackling these immense and in some cases overwhelming challenges.