Enhancement of sustainability in underground infrastructure development

Since the early 1970s, the concept of Sustainable Development has emerged as a part of international collaboration efforts to minimize environmental degradation on both human habitat and natural ecosystems occurring from the side effects of modern civilization and industrialization. This global concept was eventually expanded to include economical, social, and cultural impacts and has been applied in various industries including the construction sector. Distribution of essential public services for maintaining human life, especially in highly congested urban environments, is heavily dependent on underground infrastructure systems. As these underground infrastructure systems experience unprecedented demand for both new installation and rehabilitation of existing facilities, disturbances to human life and the ecosystem can result. Subsequently, enhancement of sustainability in underground infrastructure development can be a viable concept employed to increase economic benefit and reduce adverse environmental, social, and cultural impacts. Generally pollutions and high social costs are some of the inevitable side effects from current infrastructure development practices. This paper describes a conceptual application of sustainability in underground infrastructure development and proposes a framework for an effective sustainable approach for employing trenchless technologies. Topics include: 1) a current sustainability analysis method; 2) sustainable factors/indicators identification; and 3) sustainability survey analysis that includes weight factors.