ACUUS is a pioneer international, non-governmental organization, with more than 35 years of history, promoting the use of the underground space in cities. Why cities? Because most of the human population lives in cities and metropolises. Urban areas are continuously growing, attracting more people and economic activities. As a result, today, urban areas face complex and ever-growing problems that deteriorate their environmental quality and threaten their sustainability and resilience.
Since the beginning, ACUUS has always been an international leader in dealing with the contemporary challenges of our cities. Our organization's core ideas and philosophy support the systematic utilization of the urban underground space as the most efficient and environmentally friendly solution in order to enhance the quality of life and boost competitiveness of modern cities. We believe that modern cities and especially megacities in the 21st century can be sustainable if, and only if, they are underground, to a certain extent. We realized at a very early stage that urban underground development requires a multidisciplinary approach. We are proud because our multidisciplinary character that has enabled us to act as an international "think tank" in urban underground development. We consider our ability to constantly adapt to new conditions and our “out of the box” ideas as our strengths.
We strongly believe that strategic partnerships can help us achieve our goals. To this end, we have signed MoUs with a number of international organizations, such as the UN-Habitat and the International Conference on Canadian, Chinese and African Sustainable Urbanization (ICCCASU). We acknowledge the importance and opportunities arising from the participation of young professionals and we are closely cooperating with the Young Earth Scientists Network (YES).
ACUUS international conferences have always been the focal point of our organization. These conferences, attended by hundreds of professionals, industry leaders, city authorities and various stakeholders from around the world, grew with time as the major forum of exchange on the issues of underground space utilization. Singapore will host the 18th ACUUS conference in November 2023. The call for abstract submission has already opened and I encourage you to submit your work. We are extending the deadline for Call for Abstracts to allow additional time for authors to prepare and make their submissions. The deadline is now extended till 31 March for those who wish to submit a full paper, and till 1 September for those who only wish to make a presentation at the conference. An extended abstract will be required and included in the conference proceedings. Please contact the organizers. We have spared no effort in trying to offer an exciting event with many interesting presentations and prominent keynote speakers.
On a final note, a few words for our website. It contains a great volume of information regarding our activities and our people. ACUUS’s website enables our members to gain access to the proceedings of our conferences, which contain numerous interesting papers and leading research. Furthermore, our newsletter service provides insights and up-to-date information to our members regarding major underground projects, innovative solutions and advances in the field.
As we are entering the year 2023, our world is moving towards the post-COVID19 era and ACUUS continues to fulfill its role and provide big cities around the world the opportunity to achieve a more sustainable, resilient and worth living future. We welcome fresh ideas and new way of thinking. We are already looking ahead and if you want to be a part of ACUUS and actively participate in our activities, I encourage you to join our organization and become an ACUUS member.
Sincerely,
Dimitris Kaliampakos
ACUUS President
