1. Underground Hangzhou: The challenge of safety vs. commerciality in a major Chinese city.
- Author
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Lu, Wenzheng, Wu, Yuzhe, Choguill, Charles L., Lai, Shih-Kung, and Luo, Jiaojiao
- Subjects
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METROPOLIS , *UNDERGROUND areas , *URBAN growth , *INSTITUTIONAL environment , *SAFETY ,DEVELOPED countries - Abstract
Underground space is extremely important for the compact and spatial intensive development of cities in the world. The gap of underground space between developing countries and developed countries comes from the immaturity of the market and institutional environment, which leads to an urgent demand for new urban governance theories to guide practice. Governments often pay attention to safety, while the market is business-oriented and focuses on commercial value which leads to a trade-off between them. This paper explores the safety and commerciality from the viewpoint of urban governance theory, and uses case studies of three underground space projects in Hangzhou, China, finds that the logic behind safety and commerciality choices is actually the logical relationship between the government and the market. It is concluded that a logical conversion from complete government-led to market-oriented and government-assisted is needed to resolve the imbalance between safety and commerciality. This paper criticizes the shortcomings of traditional planning theories on urban governance and subject research, incorporates the system and time dimensions into the framework of urban governance theory, and proposes a multiple governance mechanism which can integrate safety and commerciality as a means of maximizing socio-economic benefits. • This paper reviews the irreconcilability of security and commerciality of underground space. • The paper uses case studies and examines three underground space projects in Hangzhou. • It is found that the logic behind security and commerciality choices is actually the logical relationship between the government and the market. • It is concluded that a logical conversion from complete government-led to market-oriented and government-assisted is needed to resolve the imbalance between security and commerciality. • propose a multiple governance mechanism which can integrate safety and commerciality as a means of maximizing socio-economic benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2021
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