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Smart City Technologies Smart City Technologies

Smart Subsurface Investigation Tools for Smart Cities

Underground infrastructure constitute a major component of any city's infrastructure, with underground metro corridors, parking, utilities (water, gas, sewer, telecoms, electricity etc.). Underground infrastructure also remains one of the most neglected, unplanned, least regulated and rarely maintained component. Hidden under layers of smooth roads, swanky buildings, lush green parks and city's exterior, it fails to get the attention, unless some accident (pipe ruptures, sunk roads, etc.) brings it back in focus albeit for a short time. 

A smart city can not be expected to function smartly without paying adequate attention to underground infrastructure. It is of utmost importance to have geospatial database of underground infrastructure, to evolve a system of maintenance & updating of this database regularly, and coordinated efforts of various stakeholders for smart utilisation of underground space.

Subsurface investigations are required to map existing underground infrastructure, to classify soil strata of cities, to assess effect of earthquakes in various parts of cities and link it to building standards, and for various such applications wherever an structure is to be erected. All these factors have a bearing on underground structure. Geophysical methods, due to their non-destructive nature, provide ideal solutions for smart subsurface investigations for smart cities.