Environmental Aspects of Underground Construction and Exploration of Underground Structure – State of the Art

An underground work (such as a tunnel or a cavern) has many, well known, environmental qualities such as: no physical barriers crossing the land, less maintenance costs than an analogous surface structure, less expenses for heating and conditioning; a localized emission of noise, gas, dust during operation and, finally, a better protection against seismic actions.<br/>It cannot be forgotten, anyway, that some negative environmental features are present such as, for example, : perturbation, pollution and drainage of the groundwater; settlements; disposal of waste rock.<br/>In the paper the above mentioned concepts are discussed and analysed to give a global overview of all this aspects.