Review and Prospect of Urban Underground Space Planning Practices in China

From a worldwide perspective, China is the country with the fastest development and the most planning practices for urban underground space (UUS). Looking back over the past 40 years, the practices of UUS planning have gone through four development stages, firstly the exploratory stage of civil air defense engineering combining peacetime and wartime, secondly the rising stage led by a few pilot cities, thirdly the prosperous stage of standardized guidance and national promotion, and fourthly the innovative stage of coordination between ground and underground, and gradually forming UUS planning system with distinctive Chinese characteristics. This article analyzes the main characteristics and representative practical cases of the four stages, and deeply analyzes the problems and reasons that exist in current practice from five aspects: the differences in UUS planning between China and foreign countries, the necessity of UUS planning, reconstruction of UUS planning system, upgrading of UUS planning methods, and improving the efficiency of UUS planning implementation. Then it proposes targeted main ideas and suggestions. The future city will be a three-dimensional city with integrated development of ground and underground. China’s practical exploration will contribute more wisdom to the development and utilization of UUS in Global city.