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Utilization of underground space in Japan
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tust
International Tunnelling Association
Utilization of underground space in Japan q Takayuki Kishii ⇑ Nihon University, College of Science and Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, Japan
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 7 August 2015 Received in revised form 5 December 2015 Accepted 11 December 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Underground space Japan Classification Utilization Underground shopping mall
a b s t r a c t This paper discusses the utilization of underground space in Japan. Firstly the classification of underground space is indicated and then the utilization of underground space under private lands and public lands is explained separately. Finally the characteristics of Japanese underground shopping malls and the future use of underground space is analyzed. Many people must contribute diverse ideas including measures for planning and using the space under public areas and private properties in an integrated manner, streamlining the relationships between occupying properties and systems for rationally managing aboveground and underground spaces. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Community aspects of underground space In May 2012, Tokyo Skytree, which has a height of 634 m (certified as the world’s highest tower by Guinness World Records in November 17, 2011), opened. While the Skytree is drawing attention with its height above the ground, it is equipped with various facilities underground including heating equipment and water retention facilities for disaster management and their depth is said to be roughly 35 m (equivalent to 10 stories). As such, the Skytree is an integrated structure that extends a total of 670 m from the base of its underground levels. This form of construction of facilities is possible because, based on Japanese law, land ownership is considered to extend above and under the ground. Regarding height above ground, however, the range of use of space as a building may be limited by the Civil Aeronautics Act and the City Planning Act. In contrast to the situation aboveground, for the underground, no regulations on the depth of buildings and structures existed for a long time until the Act on Special Measures concerning Public Use of Deep Underground (hereinafter ‘‘Deep Underground Act”) came into being in 2000. This Act is adapted to the three metropolitan regions of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and it defines the ‘‘deeper underground of either (1) the depth at which basements are generally not constructed (40 m or more underground) or (2) the depth at which building foundations are generally not built
q This paper is an invited discussion contribution to the Special Issue on Underground Space Use: A Growing Imperative. ⇑ Address: 5-15-1, Snimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan E-mail address: [email protected]
(10 m or more underground from the so-called bearing stratum surface)” as ‘‘deep underground,” which has led to permission for public use of this deep underground space without purchase of the surface lot in line with the ‘‘Basic Policies on the Use of the Deep Underground” prescribed by the government. That is, the concept is that the conventional private land ownership does not extend to public use of the deep underground and the Act has greatly changed the perspective of underground utilization (Kishii, 2011b, 2012). As a result, community aspects of underground space have now come to depend on the ownership of land above the ground and the depth, which can be conceptually classified as shown in Fig. 1. This article mainly presents the state of utilization of the shallow underground. 2. Utilization of shallow underground space under private land Concerning ‘‘shallow underground space” at a shallow depth under ‘‘private land” owned by an individual or corporation, the landowner is free to use his or her own land within the scope of laws and ordinances and such space is often used as the basement floors of a building or for housing related facilities (such as substation facilities, machinery and equipment relating to supply and disposal services, distribution facilities and car/bicycle parking lot). In particular, in city centers with high land prices, areas of land available are limited, which is one reason why basement floors are often built under buildings. For basement floors of these buildings, conventions relating to their construction have been put in place based on the Building Standards Act, Fire Service Act, etc.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2015.12.007 0886-7798/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Kishii, T. Utilization of underground space in Japan. Tunnel. Underg. Space Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tust.2015.12.007
2
T. Kishii / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
Depth
Complex facilities
Shallow underground
Private land
Classification of facilities
Transportation facilities
Basement of building Shops, etc.
Underground passage in building
Underground passage in building Underground parking lot in building
Public land
Semi-underground shopping mall Shops, etc. Underground pedestrian road
Underground shopping mall Underground shopping mall passage/road Shops, etc. Parking lot
Railroad facilities
Road (including underground pedestrian road)
Station, rail track, railroad underground passage, etc.
Common utility duct
Parking lot
Independent underground passage in private land
Underground passage between buildings
Complex occupying properties
(Subway + water pipes, etc.)
Other facilities Discrete occupying properties
Deep underground
(Supply and disposal facilities)
Application of Act on Special Measures concerning Public Use of Deep Underground (Applicable to projects of public nature)
Fig. 1. Classification by community aspects and usage of underground space.
It is widely known that, in Japan in the Edo period (1603–1868), many anagura (cellars) were built underground for protecting valuable assets from fires. Underground space is advantageous in terms of seismic resistance, thermal insulation and constant humidity and allows easy control of various elements of the indoor environment. Accordingly, there is a recent example of an entire plant for manufacturing precision machines buried underground (Yamazaki Mazak Optonics Minokamo Factory, https://english.mazak.jp/our-factory/optonics/). In fact, however, underground utilization of private land like this in practice has been limited to a certain depth. Data studied for establishing the Deep Underground Act shows that, in Tokyo, more than 99.9% of the existing buildings have their basement within a the equivalent of four stories. This reality of the status of underground utilization has led to the concept of ‘‘deep underground” described earlier.
One example is the Shinjuku Line (Yamate Tunnel) of the Central Circular Route of the Shuto Expressway (http://www.shutoko.jp/ss/tokyo-smooth/shinagawa/en/) that opened in 2010, which was built as a huge tunnel structure that extends approximately 11 km under the Yamate Road. In addition, river water retention and discharge facilities are also built under the road. For example, large underground river facilities, retention facilities and discharge channels (Fig. 2) are buried under Tokyo’s Loop Road 7 and National Route 16. Recently, there has been an increase in station square mechanical bicycle parking lots (Fig. 3) that utilize underground space. Use for other than the relevant public facilities falls under the concept of ‘‘occupancy” of public space and the administrators of the respective facilities permit such use within a scope that does not hamper the original functions. Specifically, typical examples are subway lines and ducts of various supply and disposal facilities buried in space under roads. The total length of such ducts is said to be approximately 1.6 million km (40 times around the earth)
3. Utilization of underground space under public lands In present-day cities, there are lands under the management of the government including public land other than private land, roads, parks, rivers and station squares, or so-called public spaces. Above all, roads are the biggest unbroken public spaces and often account for 15–25% of the district in terms of area. With such land, it may be more reasonable to build public facilities themselves as an underground structure depending on the topographical conditions of the area surrounding the facilities. However, generally costs are higher than construction on the land surface and, in reality, use of the underground is seldom chosen unless there is a factor such as environmental issues affecting the surrounding area. Still, underground space is used when vertical use is unavoidable due to congestion, use of the land surface for other purposes is desired or the environment on the land surface should be preserved (Nishi et al., 2000; Takasaki et al., 2000; Nakada et al., 1996; Endo, 1993; Kashima et al., 1993; Igarashi and Okumura, 1993; Matsusita et al., 1993).
Fig. 2. Metropolitan area outer underground discharge channel. (http://www.ktr. mlit.go.jp/edogawa/gaikaku/english/index.html).
Please cite this article in press as: Kishii, T. Utilization of underground space in Japan. Tunnel. Underg. Space Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tust.2015.12.007
T. Kishii / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
3
many cases, they are operated as corporations. However, the Basic Policy toward Underground Shopping Centers mentioned earlier specifies that ‘‘the total floor area of an underground shopping mall shall be equal to or smaller than the area of the public underground parking lot attached” and the ‘‘floor area of shops, etc.” is also regulated to be ‘‘equal to or smaller than the total floor area of the public underground footpaths.” 5. Future underground use
Fig. 3. Mechanical bicycle parking lot.
and ducts (for telephone lines, electricity, water supply, sewerage, gas, subway and utilities) housed under national routes in wards of Tokyo are said to total more than 33 km per km of national routes. Burying of these occupying properties is permitted in chronological order, which results in burying at increasingly deeper levels. With a Japanese subway system, for example, the subway Ginza Line (cut and cover method adopted), which was constructed first, runs very close to the land surface but the platform level of Korakuen Station of the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line (shield tunneling method adopted), which was constructed with more advanced technology, is located 43 m below the ground. The crosssectional shapes of tunnels have become diversified to include large cross-section, multi-tube and rectangular and the depth is also increasing year by year.
4. Underground shopping malls One example of underground space utilized by unspecified large numbers of people is the ‘‘underground shopping mall.” The ‘‘underground shopping malls” here do not simply refer to ‘‘places where there are shops and passages in the basement” such as a shopping mall in the basement of a building on private land and shops attached to railroad facilities. As declared by the 1974 notice of the Central Liaison Council concerning Underground Shopping Centers titled the ‘‘Basic Policy toward Underground Shopping Centers” and the five-government-office notification ‘‘Treatment of Underground Shopping Malls” of 1980, an ‘‘underground shopping mall” in an administrative sense is an ‘‘underground facility integrated with underground footpaths provided for public purposes and shops, offices and other similar facilities built on such footpaths (including an underground parking lot if attached) that are linked to roads or station square areas provided for public purposes” (Kishii, 2011a, 2013, 2014; Tatsukami, 1986). The first case is the Kanda Sudacho Store of Tokyo (unfortunately, the stores are already closed now and only passages are in use). At present, the total floor area of underground shopping malls like this amounts to 1.1 million m2 nationwide. The recently-built Sapporo Ekimae-dori underground walkway, which links Sapporo Station and Sapporo Underground Shopping Mall Pole Town is not an ‘‘underground shopping mall” based on this definition. In this case, a space exclusively for pedestrians is built under the road and the areas between the space and private properties are treated as ‘‘squares” based on ordinance. Development projects of ‘‘underground shopping malls” are close to so-called Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects and, in
Underground space is characterized by excellent sound insulation, fire resistance and seismic resistance and also offers constant temperature and humidity. For some facilities, making use of such space characteristics is desired to achieve the best possible control of effects of the external environment and underground construction of such facilities is expected to be aggressively continued (Besner, 2015; Nishida and Uchiyama, 1993; Hanamura, 1993). As we are entering an aged society, the idea is becoming widespread that the above-ground space should be furnished to be as people-friendly as possible and activities to move various facilities underground to make the most of the land surface are predicted to accelerate. In addition, from the perspective of global environment and energy issues, the need is increasing for control of the regional energy system of an entire area. In that sense, planning various approaches beyond the property boundaries is required more than ever and, if they achieved, there may be situations where new, unprecedented facilities occupy the space under roads. Meanwhile, renovation of various underground facilities that have been previously built poses a major issue. Approaches to housing the facilities, without missing the appropriate timing of renovation, in common utility ducts or other facility spaces that provide seismic resistance and allows easy maintenance whenever possible are required. As utilization of land progresses further, underground space used by unspecified large numbers of people will naturally increase. If a variety of underground facilities are constructed in a complex manner and a large number of people use such underground space, comprehensive measures for disaster prevention are essential. In addition to provision of easy-to-understand signs for people in the underground space, strategies such as realignment of congested underground space already built and aggressive construction of vertical space with higher visibility should be necessary. Regarding disaster prevention, measures have so far been mainly focused on earthquakes and fires but, in reaction to
Fig. 4. Installation of water-barring equipment at exit of underground shopping mall.
Please cite this article in press as: Kishii, T. Utilization of underground space in Japan. Tunnel. Underg. Space Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tust.2015.12.007
4
T. Kishii / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
‘‘guerrilla rainstorms,” which have been more frequent recently, and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, response to flood disasters has come to raise more concerns. In particular, underground shopping malls are often linked with subway concourses and the basement floors of adjacent buildings, which means that there are a large number of points with the risk of flooding. The reality demands that adequate preparations should be made through discussions involving many relevant parties. An example of a water blocking measure (Fig. 4) at a subway exit is shown here. 6. Conclusion The need is increasing for more integrated study of underground utilization in various aspects for the future. Many people must contribute diverse ideas including measures for planning and using the space under public areas and private properties in an integrated manner, streamlining the relationships between occupying properties and systems for rationally managing aboveground and underground spaces. Because underground space is not readily visible, there have been few situations up to now where mutual cooperation takes place across property boundaries. However, the next generation is the age of collaboration. Everybody should be involved in drawing a picture of new underground space. References Besner, J., 2015. Underground space needs an interdisciplinary approach. Tunnel. Undergr. Space Technol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2015.10.025.
Endo, M., 1993. Design of Tokyo’s underground expressway. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 8 (1), 7–12. Hanamura, T., 1993. Japan’s new frontier strategy: underground space development. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 5 (1/2), 13–21. Igarashi, K., Okumura, S., 1993. Conception of an underground parking system. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 8 (1), 61–64. Kashima, S., Nakamura, R., Matano, M., Taniguchi, T., Shigenaga, T., 1993. Study of an underground physical distribution system in a high- density, built-up area. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 8 (1), 53–59. Kishii, Takayuki, 2011a. On the earthquake-proof renewal of the underground shopping centers. J. Jpn. Soc. Civil Eng. Ser. F2 67-1, 28–34. Kishii Takayuki, 2011b. The new strategy of Tokyo development by using the underground space. 48–51, Economist, The Mainichi, vol. 89–15, pp. 48–51. Kishii, Takayuki, 2012. The utilization of the underground space. J. Inst. Electr. Install. Eng. Jpn. 32–7, 455–458. Kishii Takayuki, 2013. The history and characteristics of the underground shopping centers in Japan, Municipal Problems. The Tokyo Institute for Municipal Research, vol. 104–4, pp. 12–16. Kishii Takayuki, 2014. The history and new direction of the underground shopping centers, Urban Advance, Nagoya Urban Institute, vol. 63, pp. 23–30. Matsusita, K., Miura, S., Ojima, T., 1993. An environmental study of underground parking lot development in Japan. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 8 (1), 65– 73. Nakada, K., Chikahisa, H., Kobayashi, K., Sakurai, S., 1996. Plan and survey of an underground art Museum in Japan, using a large-scale rock cavern. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 11 (4), 431–443. Nishi, J., Tanaka, T., Seiki, T., Ito, H., Okuyama, K., 2000. Estimation of the value of the internal and external environment in underground space use. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 15 (1), 79–89. Nishida, Y., Uchiyama, N., 1993. Japan’s use of underground space in urban development and redevelopment. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 8 (1), 41– 45. Takasaki, H., Chikahisa, H., Yuasa, Y., 2000. Planning and mapping of surface space in Japan. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 15 (3), 287–301. Tatsukami, T., 1986. Case study of an underground shopping mall in Japan: the East Side of Yokohama Station. Tunnell. Undergr. Space Technol. 1 (1), 19–29.
Please cite this article in press as: Kishii, T. Utilization of underground space in Japan. Tunnel. Underg. Space Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tust.2015.12.007
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tust
International Tunnelling Association
Utilization of underground space in Japan q Takayuki Kishii ⇑ Nihon University, College of Science and Technology, Department of Civil Engineering, Japan
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 7 August 2015 Received in revised form 5 December 2015 Accepted 11 December 2015 Available online xxxx Keywords: Underground space Japan Classification Utilization Underground shopping mall
a b s t r a c t This paper discusses the utilization of underground space in Japan. Firstly the classification of underground space is indicated and then the utilization of underground space under private lands and public lands is explained separately. Finally the characteristics of Japanese underground shopping malls and the future use of underground space is analyzed. Many people must contribute diverse ideas including measures for planning and using the space under public areas and private properties in an integrated manner, streamlining the relationships between occupying properties and systems for rationally managing aboveground and underground spaces. Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Community aspects of underground space In May 2012, Tokyo Skytree, which has a height of 634 m (certified as the world’s highest tower by Guinness World Records in November 17, 2011), opened. While the Skytree is drawing attention with its height above the ground, it is equipped with various facilities underground including heating equipment and water retention facilities for disaster management and their depth is said to be roughly 35 m (equivalent to 10 stories). As such, the Skytree is an integrated structure that extends a total of 670 m from the base of its underground levels. This form of construction of facilities is possible because, based on Japanese law, land ownership is considered to extend above and under the ground. Regarding height above ground, however, the range of use of space as a building may be limited by the Civil Aeronautics Act and the City Planning Act. In contrast to the situation aboveground, for the underground, no regulations on the depth of buildings and structures existed for a long time until the Act on Special Measures concerning Public Use of Deep Underground (hereinafter ‘‘Deep Underground Act”) came into being in 2000. This Act is adapted to the three metropolitan regions of Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and it defines the ‘‘deeper underground of either (1) the depth at which basements are generally not constructed (40 m or more underground) or (2) the depth at which building foundations are generally not built
q This paper is an invited discussion contribution to the Special Issue on Underground Space Use: A Growing Imperative. ⇑ Address: 5-15-1, Snimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo, Japan E-mail address: [email protected]
(10 m or more underground from the so-called bearing stratum surface)” as ‘‘deep underground,” which has led to permission for public use of this deep underground space without purchase of the surface lot in line with the ‘‘Basic Policies on the Use of the Deep Underground” prescribed by the government. That is, the concept is that the conventional private land ownership does not extend to public use of the deep underground and the Act has greatly changed the perspective of underground utilization (Kishii, 2011b, 2012). As a result, community aspects of underground space have now come to depend on the ownership of land above the ground and the depth, which can be conceptually classified as shown in Fig. 1. This article mainly presents the state of utilization of the shallow underground. 2. Utilization of shallow underground space under private land Concerning ‘‘shallow underground space” at a shallow depth under ‘‘private land” owned by an individual or corporation, the landowner is free to use his or her own land within the scope of laws and ordinances and such space is often used as the basement floors of a building or for housing related facilities (such as substation facilities, machinery and equipment relating to supply and disposal services, distribution facilities and car/bicycle parking lot). In particular, in city centers with high land prices, areas of land available are limited, which is one reason why basement floors are often built under buildings. For basement floors of these buildings, conventions relating to their construction have been put in place based on the Building Standards Act, Fire Service Act, etc.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2015.12.007 0886-7798/Ó 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Please cite this article in press as: Kishii, T. Utilization of underground space in Japan. Tunnel. Underg. Space Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tust.2015.12.007
2
T. Kishii / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
Depth
Complex facilities
Shallow underground
Private land
Classification of facilities
Transportation facilities
Basement of building Shops, etc.
Underground passage in building
Underground passage in building Underground parking lot in building
Public land
Semi-underground shopping mall Shops, etc. Underground pedestrian road
Underground shopping mall Underground shopping mall passage/road Shops, etc. Parking lot
Railroad facilities
Road (including underground pedestrian road)
Station, rail track, railroad underground passage, etc.
Common utility duct
Parking lot
Independent underground passage in private land
Underground passage between buildings
Complex occupying properties
(Subway + water pipes, etc.)
Other facilities Discrete occupying properties
Deep underground
(Supply and disposal facilities)
Application of Act on Special Measures concerning Public Use of Deep Underground (Applicable to projects of public nature)
Fig. 1. Classification by community aspects and usage of underground space.
It is widely known that, in Japan in the Edo period (1603–1868), many anagura (cellars) were built underground for protecting valuable assets from fires. Underground space is advantageous in terms of seismic resistance, thermal insulation and constant humidity and allows easy control of various elements of the indoor environment. Accordingly, there is a recent example of an entire plant for manufacturing precision machines buried underground (Yamazaki Mazak Optonics Minokamo Factory, https://english.mazak.jp/our-factory/optonics/). In fact, however, underground utilization of private land like this in practice has been limited to a certain depth. Data studied for establishing the Deep Underground Act shows that, in Tokyo, more than 99.9% of the existing buildings have their basement within a the equivalent of four stories. This reality of the status of underground utilization has led to the concept of ‘‘deep underground” described earlier.
One example is the Shinjuku Line (Yamate Tunnel) of the Central Circular Route of the Shuto Expressway (http://www.shutoko.jp/ss/tokyo-smooth/shinagawa/en/) that opened in 2010, which was built as a huge tunnel structure that extends approximately 11 km under the Yamate Road. In addition, river water retention and discharge facilities are also built under the road. For example, large underground river facilities, retention facilities and discharge channels (Fig. 2) are buried under Tokyo’s Loop Road 7 and National Route 16. Recently, there has been an increase in station square mechanical bicycle parking lots (Fig. 3) that utilize underground space. Use for other than the relevant public facilities falls under the concept of ‘‘occupancy” of public space and the administrators of the respective facilities permit such use within a scope that does not hamper the original functions. Specifically, typical examples are subway lines and ducts of various supply and disposal facilities buried in space under roads. The total length of such ducts is said to be approximately 1.6 million km (40 times around the earth)
3. Utilization of underground space under public lands In present-day cities, there are lands under the management of the government including public land other than private land, roads, parks, rivers and station squares, or so-called public spaces. Above all, roads are the biggest unbroken public spaces and often account for 15–25% of the district in terms of area. With such land, it may be more reasonable to build public facilities themselves as an underground structure depending on the topographical conditions of the area surrounding the facilities. However, generally costs are higher than construction on the land surface and, in reality, use of the underground is seldom chosen unless there is a factor such as environmental issues affecting the surrounding area. Still, underground space is used when vertical use is unavoidable due to congestion, use of the land surface for other purposes is desired or the environment on the land surface should be preserved (Nishi et al., 2000; Takasaki et al., 2000; Nakada et al., 1996; Endo, 1993; Kashima et al., 1993; Igarashi and Okumura, 1993; Matsusita et al., 1993).
Fig. 2. Metropolitan area outer underground discharge channel. (http://www.ktr. mlit.go.jp/edogawa/gaikaku/english/index.html).
Please cite this article in press as: Kishii, T. Utilization of underground space in Japan. Tunnel. Underg. Space Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tust.2015.12.007
T. Kishii / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
3
many cases, they are operated as corporations. However, the Basic Policy toward Underground Shopping Centers mentioned earlier specifies that ‘‘the total floor area of an underground shopping mall shall be equal to or smaller than the area of the public underground parking lot attached” and the ‘‘floor area of shops, etc.” is also regulated to be ‘‘equal to or smaller than the total floor area of the public underground footpaths.” 5. Future underground use
Fig. 3. Mechanical bicycle parking lot.
and ducts (for telephone lines, electricity, water supply, sewerage, gas, subway and utilities) housed under national routes in wards of Tokyo are said to total more than 33 km per km of national routes. Burying of these occupying properties is permitted in chronological order, which results in burying at increasingly deeper levels. With a Japanese subway system, for example, the subway Ginza Line (cut and cover method adopted), which was constructed first, runs very close to the land surface but the platform level of Korakuen Station of the Tokyo Metro Namboku Line (shield tunneling method adopted), which was constructed with more advanced technology, is located 43 m below the ground. The crosssectional shapes of tunnels have become diversified to include large cross-section, multi-tube and rectangular and the depth is also increasing year by year.
4. Underground shopping malls One example of underground space utilized by unspecified large numbers of people is the ‘‘underground shopping mall.” The ‘‘underground shopping malls” here do not simply refer to ‘‘places where there are shops and passages in the basement” such as a shopping mall in the basement of a building on private land and shops attached to railroad facilities. As declared by the 1974 notice of the Central Liaison Council concerning Underground Shopping Centers titled the ‘‘Basic Policy toward Underground Shopping Centers” and the five-government-office notification ‘‘Treatment of Underground Shopping Malls” of 1980, an ‘‘underground shopping mall” in an administrative sense is an ‘‘underground facility integrated with underground footpaths provided for public purposes and shops, offices and other similar facilities built on such footpaths (including an underground parking lot if attached) that are linked to roads or station square areas provided for public purposes” (Kishii, 2011a, 2013, 2014; Tatsukami, 1986). The first case is the Kanda Sudacho Store of Tokyo (unfortunately, the stores are already closed now and only passages are in use). At present, the total floor area of underground shopping malls like this amounts to 1.1 million m2 nationwide. The recently-built Sapporo Ekimae-dori underground walkway, which links Sapporo Station and Sapporo Underground Shopping Mall Pole Town is not an ‘‘underground shopping mall” based on this definition. In this case, a space exclusively for pedestrians is built under the road and the areas between the space and private properties are treated as ‘‘squares” based on ordinance. Development projects of ‘‘underground shopping malls” are close to so-called Private Finance Initiative (PFI) projects and, in
Underground space is characterized by excellent sound insulation, fire resistance and seismic resistance and also offers constant temperature and humidity. For some facilities, making use of such space characteristics is desired to achieve the best possible control of effects of the external environment and underground construction of such facilities is expected to be aggressively continued (Besner, 2015; Nishida and Uchiyama, 1993; Hanamura, 1993). As we are entering an aged society, the idea is becoming widespread that the above-ground space should be furnished to be as people-friendly as possible and activities to move various facilities underground to make the most of the land surface are predicted to accelerate. In addition, from the perspective of global environment and energy issues, the need is increasing for control of the regional energy system of an entire area. In that sense, planning various approaches beyond the property boundaries is required more than ever and, if they achieved, there may be situations where new, unprecedented facilities occupy the space under roads. Meanwhile, renovation of various underground facilities that have been previously built poses a major issue. Approaches to housing the facilities, without missing the appropriate timing of renovation, in common utility ducts or other facility spaces that provide seismic resistance and allows easy maintenance whenever possible are required. As utilization of land progresses further, underground space used by unspecified large numbers of people will naturally increase. If a variety of underground facilities are constructed in a complex manner and a large number of people use such underground space, comprehensive measures for disaster prevention are essential. In addition to provision of easy-to-understand signs for people in the underground space, strategies such as realignment of congested underground space already built and aggressive construction of vertical space with higher visibility should be necessary. Regarding disaster prevention, measures have so far been mainly focused on earthquakes and fires but, in reaction to
Fig. 4. Installation of water-barring equipment at exit of underground shopping mall.
Please cite this article in press as: Kishii, T. Utilization of underground space in Japan. Tunnel. Underg. Space Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tust.2015.12.007
4
T. Kishii / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx
‘‘guerrilla rainstorms,” which have been more frequent recently, and the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, response to flood disasters has come to raise more concerns. In particular, underground shopping malls are often linked with subway concourses and the basement floors of adjacent buildings, which means that there are a large number of points with the risk of flooding. The reality demands that adequate preparations should be made through discussions involving many relevant parties. An example of a water blocking measure (Fig. 4) at a subway exit is shown here. 6. Conclusion The need is increasing for more integrated study of underground utilization in various aspects for the future. Many people must contribute diverse ideas including measures for planning and using the space under public areas and private properties in an integrated manner, streamlining the relationships between occupying properties and systems for rationally managing aboveground and underground spaces. Because underground space is not readily visible, there have been few situations up to now where mutual cooperation takes place across property boundaries. However, the next generation is the age of collaboration. Everybody should be involved in drawing a picture of new underground space. References Besner, J., 2015. Underground space needs an interdisciplinary approach. Tunnel. Undergr. Space Technol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2015.10.025.
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Please cite this article in press as: Kishii, T. Utilization of underground space in Japan. Tunnel. Underg. Space Technol. (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j. tust.2015.12.007