Examples include:

• Sweden’s HYBRIT large-scale underground rock cavern storage of hydrogen
• London's Crossrail connecting 30 stations in the UK’s capital city
• Norway's Lefdal Mine Datacenter
• South Korea’s high speed rail network, 82% of which is underground
• China’s 2.4GWh Huai’an salt cavern CAES project
• Glasgow's Shieldhall wastewater relief tunnel, which has reduced flooding and resulted in a cleaner River Clyde

Delivering such projects efficiently, safely, sustainably and in the way that best serves the needs of end-users requires integrating understanding of geology, rock mechanics, underground engineering and underground space utilisation. Research to support this must be interdisciplinary including studies of field analogues, in-situ measurement and experimentation, advanced numerical simulation and AI, as well as social science research into utilisation and safety.

Underground laboratories are playing an increasingly important role as platforms for innovative science and engineering. In the year of the 300th anniversary of the father of modern geology, James Hutton, the need to ensure geological heterogeneity, grounded in an understanding of deep time, is adequately linked to geological engineering is more vital than ever.

This international symposium will assemble international experts in all related disciplines for two-and-a-half days of inspiring presentations, in-depth discussion, and workshops.

Themes

Main themes include but are not limited to:

• fundamental geomechanics
• tunnelling and excavation
• coupled processes in rock masses
• subsurface energy storage
• carbon capture, utilisation and storage
• geothermal energy
• safety and hazard prevention
• AI in rock engineering