This research investigates how cities faced with the intensification of underground space usage to accommodate urban infrastructure are being required to change their traditional method of planning and management of underground space use. The shift is represented by the replacement of an uncoordinated approach to new forms of planning and management that respects the multiple interactions between stakeholders and takes into consideration the multiple relationships that are created with urban underground usage. The study works with the hypothesis that there is a need for a special form of governance of this layer that may contribute to the capacity of continuance of underground space usage for present and future generations, thus contributing for urban sustainability. Two case studies are developed to verify how the concepts are reflected in these cities’ lives and to compare the choices made by cities’ administrations, presenting their similarities or differences in order to assess how different initiatives may behave in different contexts. These case studies are the Helsinki Underground Master Plan-UMP, one of the world’s most comprehensive and advanced urban underground planning instrument and the Rio de Janeiro’s Project Geovias an initiative designed to map and register under one single database all the underground infrastructure existent in the urban area. aimed to make possible a more efficient arrangement of the city’s underground. The research suggests that the implementation of network governance tools centered on coordination and guidance of interactions and relationships according to shared objectives are examples of operational models of urban governance that modify the way cities plan and manage underground space usage more capable to provide the continuance of underground uses into the future what may be considered as a contribution for urban sustainability as most of these uses are vital for the satisfaction of the city’s essential needs.

这项研究调查了城市如何面对地下空间使用的集约化以适应城市基础设施，需要改变其传统的地下空间使用规划和管理方法。这种转变表现为新的规划和管理形式取代了一种不协调的方法，这种方法尊重利益相关者之间的多重互动，并考虑到城市地下使用所产生的多重关系。该研究假设需要对这一层进行特殊形式的治理，这可能有助于提高当代和未来几代人继续使用地下空间的能力，从而促进城市的可持续性。开发了两个案例研究来验证这些概念是如何反映在这些城市的生活中的，并比较城市管理部门所做的选择，展示它们的相似之处或不同之处，以评估不同举措在不同环境中的表现。这些案例研究是赫尔辛基地下总体规划-UMP，世界上最全面、最先进的城市地下规划工具之一，也是里约热内卢的Project Geovias一项旨在将市区现有的所有地下基础设施映射和登记在一个单一数据库下的举措。旨在使城市地下的更有效安排成为可能。研究表明，以根据共同目标协调和指导相互作用和关系为中心的网络治理工具的实施是城市治理运营模式的例子，它改变了城市规划和管理地下空间使用的方式，更有能力提供地下空间的延续。未来的用途可能被视为对城市可持续性的贡献，因为这些用途中的大多数对于满足城市的基本需求至关重要。