Han Admiraal, a Civil Engineer (University of Applied Science, Rotterdam ) is co-chair of the International Tunnelling and Underground Space Association's Committee on Underground Space (ITACUS) and a member of the Urban Planning Advisory Group of United Nations for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), advising the Special Representative.  As President of the Dutch-Flemish Pipeline Industry Guild, he promotes underground freight transport as sustainable and economically efficient mode.

Over the course of his career, Han worked for the National Department of Public Works and Water Management, acting amongst other positions as Project Manager for the first machine excavated (TBM driven) tunnel in soft soil in the Netherlands. Later, as Executive Director of the COB, the Netherlands Centre for Underground Construction, he implemented visionary concepts on underground construction and was part-time professor of Underground Space at Zeeland University of Applied Science. Since 2008, he is Owner and Managing Director of Enprodes Management Consultancy in Delft, consulting in the fields of underground space and road tunnel safety.

He is passionate about urban planning and an interdisciplinary dialogue between various stakeholders and professional disciplines dealing with urban and underground development. Having published numerous articles on this topic, this is his first book.

Antonia Cornaro, MA Urban Planning, studied at New York University where she earned her Masters in 1996 and later gained valuable experience working for the City of New York's Planning Department (DCP) in their Transportation Division.

She has 20 years of working experience as an urban and transport planner from the public and private sector from New York City, London, Vienna and Zurich, having worked for DCP (1995-1997), Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB now WSP from 1997-2001), the Austrian Institute of Regional Planning (ÖIR, from 2001-2006), and the Zurich based multi-disciplinary engineering consulting firm EBP (2006-2010).

In her current work as Business Development Manager for Amberg Engineering, an internationally active Swiss firm specializing in underground infrastructure design and management, she focuses on Urban Underground Space with the aim to increase mobility, livability and resilience of urban areas (since 2010 until today).

This is also central to her work as co-chair of ITACUS (the International Tunnel and Underground Space Association's Committee on Underground Space. Antonia is passionate about cities, global and sustainable development, and has presented and published extensively on this subject, often jointly with Han Admiraal. This is her first book.