Why World Tunnel Congress

The World Tunnel Congress is an annual General Assembly of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association (ITA).

The ITA was founded in 1974 by a group of nineteen nations. At the moment the association is comprised of 64 member nations. The aims of the ITA are:

• to support the people, the cities, the increasing flow of individuals (traffic) and the environment by strengthening the use of the underground space e.g. tunnels

• to support a sustainable development of underground structures,

• to gather and promote advancements in planning, design, technology, construction, safety, and maintenance of underground structures and spaces, and

• to scrutinize issues and study questions about related themes.

To resolve the questions, the ITA formed various committees for different areas in the field of underground structures and spaces:

• ITA-COSUF
• Committee on Operational Safety of Underground Facilities
• To deal with operational safety and security of underground facilities
• ITA-CUS
• Committee on Underground Space
• Discussions of topics about the "strategic importance for underground space use and tunnelling"
• ITA-CET
• Committee on Education and Training
• Creation of training sections, coordination of interactions and exchanges of know-how
• ITA tech
• Committee on technologies
• Several Activity Groups discuss technical questions to improve new technology and their use

The annual World Tunnel Congress is a place for exchange of knowledge regarding underground topics as well as cultural aspects of each host nation. 
This years meeting will be held in Geneva, Switzerland. For the year 2014 the host nation will be Brazil (Iguassu) and in 2015 it will be Croatia (Dubrovnik).