From July 3 to 5, the 13th International Forum on Underground Space Development (IFUS 2026), part of the "World Cities Day" social series of events, was held in Shanghai. With the theme "Co-Intelligence and Coexistence, Integrated Development," the forum closely followed the main thread of high-quality urban development under the 15th Five-Year Plan, bringing together nearly one hundred academicians, experts, and representatives of leading enterprises from home and abroad. It focused on the integration of artificial intelligence with the entire underground space industry chain, explored new development models for the urban underground space industry, and empowered the upgrading of urban space. More than 400 people attended the forum in person, and online livestream viewership exceeded 50,000.

Guests gathered both online and offline at the opening ceremony. Speeches were delivered respectively by Qian Qihu, Honorary Chairman of the Forum and Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering; Liu Qianwei, First-Level Inspector of the Shanghai Housing and Urban-Rural Development Commission; Shi Zhenming, Vice President of Tongji University; and Yu Ning, Chairman of the Shanghai Civil Engineering Society and Vice President of Shanghai Shentong Metro Group Co., Ltd. Industry representatives from all sides reached a consensus: during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, domestic underground space development has officially entered a new stage in which stock quality improvement and incremental intelligent upgrading proceed in parallel, and the industry urgently needs to rely on AI technologies such as digital twins, intelligent sensing, and engineering robots to reconstruct the development model of the entire underground engineering chain.

The forum featured multidimensional keynote reports covering urban development strategy, station-city integration, intelligent operation and maintenance, and the implementation of AI technologies, among other directions. Industry experts shared achievements in frontier fields such as intelligent tunnel boring, AI detection and imaging of underground space, multimodal spatial intelligent recognition, renewal of underground space in historic urban areas, and top-level planning of underground space in megacities.

The forum also held three parallel sub-forums in parallel, focusing on different application scenarios to promote the implementation of technologies. The Forum on Resilient Operation and Maintenance and Intelligent Upgrading of Underground Infrastructure in Megacities conducted discussions on underground space safety assessment, digital operation and maintenance of rail transit, and low-carbon underground road construction, and built an intelligent management and control system for urban underground lifelines based on multi-source sensing and artificial intelligence technologies. The Forum on the Integrated Development of Intelligent Construction and Green Low-Carbon Development of Underground Space shared practical solutions in directions such as intelligent repair of underground pipe networks, new digital pile foundation methods, and shield-driven collaborative intelligent construction, promoting the industry's intelligent, green, and industrialized transformation. At the Youth Forum, young scholars reported on achievements in frontier directions such as intelligent sensing, new building materials, and disaster prediction algorithms, demonstrating the innovative strength of the industry's youth.

For the first time, the forum added a special youth science popularization painting session. Industry experts gave multiple science popularization lectures explaining knowledge related to underground engineering, AI-assisted design, and shield tunneling technology. Students used paintings to imagine future underground cities, and the event set up multiple creative awards.

The forum also included an exhibition of scientific and technological achievements in underground space and organized participating representatives to visit a domestic large cruise ship project on site, where they learned advanced engineering management experience such as digital twins, modular prefabrication, and full-cycle data management and control.

The International Forum on Underground Space Development (IFUS) was initiated in 2013 and has been included in the "World Cities Day" social series of events since 2017. It has been successfully held thirteen times to date, with more than 50 academicians and participants from more than 10 countries in total.

Source: Yicai.com