INTERVIEW WITH… SØREN DEGN ESKESEN FORMER PRESIDENT OF ITA-AITES
(2013-2016): “UNDERGROUND SPACE CAN CONTRIBUTE TO REDUCING THE CARBON FOOTPRINT
AND PROTECT CITIES FROM FLOODS.”
The effects of climate change can be felt throughout the world, with
repeated, increasingly frequent river floods and marine submersions. In the
face of these phenomena, which endanger both populations and structures, what
solutions can underground infrastructures provide?
Søren Degn ESKESEN: Cities around the world must deal with the challenge of rapid
urbanization
and climate change. At ITA we are convinced that underground space in
urban areas can be used
for meeting the many challenges cities face today. If done at an early
stage and in an organized manner, the development of underground space can
contribute to the sustainable development of
urban areas, including to help them adapt to the effects of climate
change. The solutions fall into
two categories.
First of all, exploiting underground spaces can contribute to the
reduction of the carbon footprint generated by big cities. Several options are
open in this framework. The first consists in developing an underground transport
system that uses renewable energy, like the subway that runs on non-carbon
energy. Another possibility could be to produce energy based on green resources
such as water. Indeed, when it comes to hydroelectricity, it is essential to
make use of underground spaces by building tunnels for water conveyance and
underground storage spaces for electric power stations.
The occupation of underground space could also offer the possibility of
protecting cities from floods by bringing flood control tunnels into service to
regulate flows. The principle consists in diverting water through these tunnels
to prevent potential overflow on the surface, or creating underground
infrastructures to retain water in periods of flooding. Such solutions
have been used in several cities such as Buenos Aires in Argentina
Are governments becoming aware of the potential of underground
infrastructures to protect populations and buildings? Is there a new awareness
on the part of the international community about the subject?
Søren Degn ESKESEN: ITA has been reaching out to decision makers and urban planners for
several years to convince them of the relevance of exploiting underground
spaces. During our annual tunnel conferences held over the period 2011 to 2013
in Helsinki, Bangkok and Geneva, we organized open sessions where the subject
was the use of underground space in a changing world. Cities everywhere are
under pressure to deal with population growth and meet their future energy and transportation
needs, using far more sustainable methods in order to reduce their carbon
footprint and mitigate the effect of climate change. Decision makers and
organizations are now talking about underground space and considering how to
include the underground when building cities to make them more resilient. The
ITA community supports them in their approach. The association has established
its reputation and is invited to participate in working groups registered in
the United Nations agenda.
ITA was named as one of the partners in the Expert Group on urban
drainage set up by UN Habitat.
An excellent example of this is the SMART project in Kuala Lumpur.
UN Habitat recently identified 5 basic principles concerning urban
drainage. One of them stipulates that ”effective use of tunnels and underground
spaces is appropriate when conditions so require.” Tunnelling and underground
space are now becoming an integral part of UN policy. So yes, the international
community is aware of this issue. This is only a first stage, but it is a step
forward which shows that ITA’s efforts are bearing fruit.
Did the New York Climate Summit in September 2014 enable ITA, which took
part in it, to raise government representatives’ awareness of the solutions put
forward for limiting the effects of weather disturbances?
Søren Degn ESKESEN: ITA was represented by the Chair of our Committee on Underground Space Han
Admiraal and myself at the UN Climate Summit in New York in September 2014. At
this historic meeting many governments and organizations pledged their alliance
in combatting climate change.
From that moment on, it became clear that investors were increasingly
backing green projects geared towards reducing carbon emissions. This is caused
by three reasons outlined by the speakers.
Firstly there is no longer any doubt as to the fact that climate change
is wreaking havoc with the environment and that it is caused by human activity.
Moreover, the cost of not doing anything about
climate change now outweighs the cost of taking steps to curb it. Lastly,
governments alone cannot change anything; the involvement of the private sector
is vital.
This commitment must be the collective action of businesses that want to
act together on the basis of common interests rather than the fruit of an
individual initiative. Companies should be driven by a simple credo: if we
don’t act now, there will soon be no planet left.
In the closing session UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon announced the
introduction of a Global Geothermal Alliance in the field of Energy, which
clearly shows that ITA's efforts in planned development of underground space
must continue. Other important fields that ITA must remain focused on are the
transportation sector and urbanization. These two sectors will play a vital role
in implementing a low-carbon economy. The participants in the UN conference on
the climate agreed that underground space is a relevant response to numerous
urban challenges, thereby acknowledging ITA’s expertise as a global leader in
the field of tunnelling and underground space.
How and with what kind of scientific and technical arguments can your
industry encourage States to invest in underground infrastructures to limit the
devastating effects of flooding and submergence which we know will get more frequent
and more severe in the coming decades?
Søren Degn ESKESEN: Our industry has solutions for controlling floods by diverting water
into tunnels to prevent water from rising to the surface. By launching a
certain number of projects, we
have proven that solutions already exist. The message that must be
conveyed is that it is cheaper,
safer and more efficient to propose solutions at an early stage to
prevent disasters from occurring.
We need to convince states and government to invest in order to avert catastrophes.
The capital is better spent on investment for disaster risk reduction
than on rebuilding cities after a disaster such as a flood.
Cities everywhere are under pressure to deal with population growth and
meet their future energy and transportation needs. There are methods that are
far more sustainable for reducing the carbon footprint and mitigating the
effect of climate change.
Ensuring that populations can move around efficiently is critical to the
quality of life and economic success of cities. Success depends on how cities
utilize their underground, because what happens below the ground strongly
influences what it is possible to achieve above ground. By investing in the
underground you create room at the surface to develop the city into an economic
powerhouse.
Currently, are there any significant ongoing construction sites in the
world aiming at reinforcing the safety of populations and property located in
flood-prone areas? If so, what are they?
Søren Degn ESKESEN: South East Asia is probably the area of the world with the greatest
risk of flooding. In the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, flooding occurs too often.
Several projects have been launched to cope with immediate remediation such as
the tunnel that will connect the Ciliwung River in Bidaracina with the East Flood
Canal in Eastern Jakarta. But the most important long-term project is the
multi-purpose tunnel in Jakarta, based on the example of the Kuala Lumpur SMART
tunnel.
After the huge flood that occurred in Bangkok during autumn 2011, the
Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) as well as the ITA members in
Thailand (TUTG) came up with various solutions including tunnels to prevent
such flooding. TUTG suggested constructing a long multi-purpose tunnel running
from north of the capital city to the sea, and BMA is reinforcing its network
of drainage tunnels. The construction of the tunnel began a few months ago. The
tunnel will measure 6.4 km in length and 5 m in diameter.
Other projects exist in various countries and parts of the world. Even
in my hometown Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, we are considering building
a tunnel that will serve as both a drainage tunnel and a sixlane road. At the
moment there is a heavily congested road on the surface that follows the
alignment of a river, which now flows in the drainage pipes. By making the road
an underground artery and combining it with the function of a drainage tunnel
that will serve to channel large amounts of falling water, we will free up
surface space and put the river back in its original bed. We will create a
recreational area nearby for the city’s inhabitants to enjoy.
Bangkok:How a 100 km long floodway beneath the eastern part of the city
would work
Beyond large-scale structures built underground, in particular for transport,
installations on a more modest scale may be set up in cities. Which of them is
the most likely to be rolled out in European cities?
Søren Degn Eskesen: In addition to underground facilities related to the supply, storage
and conveyance of water, those most commonly used in our cities, we are
observing a new trend these
days: urban construction of underground infrastructures dedicated to the
control and drainage of the volume of water. We have already noted that a
certain number of projects related to these facilities have been launched and
initiated by many cities, including Copenhagen. There, more than 100 projects
are about to be put in place for the purpose of coping with torrential rains
and floods.
This modest example can be applied to many cities in the world. That is
why we urgently need to
act now and think about how underground space can be one of the
solutions that should be envisaged, if we want to protect our urban heritage
from the impacts generated by climate disruption.
A few months ago, Paris hosted the COP21, the World Climate Change
Conference. During this event, climate disruption was once again at the heart
of the debates. What were the key messages ITAAITES conveyed at the summit?
Søren Degn Eskesen: In our work with UN Habitat we have emphasized the role underground
space can play in urban drainage and disaster risk reduction. We are now part
of a process that consists in bringing cities and private partners closer
together to launch projects that will achieve these goals.
The idea is to give up concepts and theories and concentrate on concrete
action, especially in those fastgrowing cities that need such infrastructures
but have never even considered the issue. We are challenged to come up with
solutions to solve the problems these cities face, especially problems of
drainage and channeling flows.
The advantages gained from the decisions about human management that we
take today will be evaluated fairly by future generations the same way we
measure the benefits of investments that our grandparents began. Such as the
construction of the subway, or underground, in cities like Paris, London and
New York.
Today’s city dwellers are still benefitting in their daily life from the
investments made more than 100 years ago. ITA has never been so close to its
goal: to attract the world’s attention and make sure tunnels and underground
space are considered vital solutions to the greatest challenges our planet has
ever faced. We are deeply committed to this goal and ITA will continue to
proactively propose and implement solutions to these challenges.
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