- Planning the Development of Underground Space    791 kb by    Belyaev, Valery | vbelyaev2011@mail.ru    Short Outline Using references to word wide examples, this paper describes the potential of developing underground space in the center of Moscow with the view to preserve its historic quality, enhance service and amenities and create an opportunity for increased compactness. It describes political, administrative and technical obstacles that slow down the desired process of vertical densification and proposes innovative ways of addressing existing concerns. Abstract When selecting the model of a compact spatial development, cities use their underground space on a large scale. There’s been growth in complexity of approaches (''underground cities'' of Canada and Japan), their planning, the validity, consistency of implementation (master plans of underground areas of cities in Finland, the Netherlands, China, Singapore, etc.). Moscow still lags behind in scale and complexity of the ''Urban Underground'', with, however, good conditions for placing under ground most of the objects of engineering and transport, social, scientific and industrial infrastructure. The first steps in this direction have been made (The Concept of underground space development and the main directions of urban underground development of Moscow City, City Program on this issue, parts of the Master Plan of the city for the period up to 2025, providing in particular the amount of the planned underground development in each functional area). However, new political and economic realities require a systematic look at the problem, improving the conceptual approaches as part of the underground space as an integral part of the developed area. In this regard, substantial reform of public administration in this area is necessary, first of all in the field of spatial planning, as well as coordination of underground planning with adjacent areas of economic activity, adequate development of the system of legal, informational and other support, urban regulation and engineering research, primarily on the federal level. To attract investment it is necessary to create a modern mechanism to assess the socio-economic efficiency of urban underground space development. Even if new territories are being attached the issue of underground development remains important. It provides a rare opportunity to address the ambitious task of creating a unique comfortable environment for Muscovites and will meet the requirement of sustainable development of the territory established by the Urban Planning Code of The Russian Federation. Therefore, when updating the General Plan of the city it is necessary to perform a differentiated assessment of the favorability of areas for underground construction including the assessment of planning options, and then selecting the most rational of them. At the same time there is a need for a comprehensive development of the existing underground areas, primarily in the central area of Moscow, with the announcement of it, based on the need to preserve the historical uniqueness of the urban environment and proximity of service facilities, an area of underground territorial development. This will open the possibility of developing the relevant territorial scheme (similar to the City of Helsinki), a number of branch circuits, as well as project of planning and surveying the territory. It is advisable to implement the proposed activities appropriate within the state city program ''Urban Policy'' for the years of 2012-2016. Keywords Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2012: Fast Forward: Planning in a (hyper) dynamic urban context   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper