An increase in the functional diversity of infrastructure and buildings, driven by changing demands in industrial, commercial, and public service sectors, has contributed to the evolution and economic growth of cities around the world. Utilization of urban underground space is also undergoing a transforming and enhancing stage. The number of projects now being built beneath the city surface suggests a rising interest in underground infrastructure and underscores the need to sustainably plan

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... her development. The Deep City research program at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne puts forth a methodological framework for addressing the synergies and conflicts between underground resources in the urban planning process, in order to align underground urbanization with sustainable development paradigm. Through a contextual analysis of the four main underground resources -underground space, geomaterials, geothermal energy and groundwaterand a strategic model study of seven cities exemplary in their underground development practices, this dissertation proposes an integrated management process for the Deep City methodology and applies it to the Chinese case study of Suzhou. It develops strategies for creating decision-making criteria, for rating potential subsurface development projects by priority and for assessing their economic efficiency. The process associating strategy making and operational measures, proposed solution packages to increase feasibility for a sustainable development of the four resources; it created an information system revealing urban underground potential, with the involvement of city level administrations; and it demonstrated priority development projects based on potential evaluation. At the end, a cost efficiency indicator taking into account underground space's supply potential and demand potential was applied to justify economic competitiveness of underground development projects.