Regional Infrastructure Systems


Book Description

As the international economy globalises, there is a need for national infrastructure systems to adapt to form a global infrastructure system. This network of networks aids mobility between national systems as a means of supporting their territorial needs and preferences. This reflects a strategic approach to state infrastructuring as nations seek to utilise these physical systems to support and enhance their territoriality. Providing a thorough examination through the lens of economic infrastructure, the book addresses the forces of integration and fragmentation in global networks. This book explores the trend towards the development of regional infrastructure systems within the context of territorial strategy. Regional systems emerge out of states seeking to position themselves within the international system. Colin Turner identifies the diverse processes that are driving regional infrastructures, as well as examining the formal and informal patterns of integration that are shaping developments. This book is ideal for international political economy and regional development scholars who seek an advanced understanding of current regional infrastructure systems. It will also serve as a vital tool for practitioners who need to understand the implications for policy-making.










Measuring and Improving Infrastructure Performance


Book Description

The nation's physical infrastructure facilitates movement of people and goods; provides safe water; provides energy when and where needed; removes wastes; enables rapid communications; and generally supports our economy and quality of life. Developing a framework for guiding attempts at measuring the performance of infrastructure systems and grappling with the concept of defining good performance are the major themes of this book. Focusing on urban regions, within a context of national policy, the volume provides the basis for further in-depth analysis and application at the local, regional, state, and national levels.







Sustainable Critical Infrastructure Systems


Book Description

For the people of the United States, the 20th century was one of unprecedented population growth, economic development, and improved quality of life. The critical infrastructure systems-water, wastewater, power, transportation, and telecommunications-built in the 20th century have become so much a part of modern life that they are taken for granted. By 2030, 60 million more Americans will expect these systems to deliver essential services. Large segments and components of the nation's critical infrastructure systems are now 50 to 100 years old, and their performance and condition are deteriorating. Improvements are clearly necessary. However, approaching infrastructure renewal by continuing to use the same processes, practices, technologies, and materials that were developed in the 20th century will likely yield the same results: increasing instances of service disruptions, higher operating and repair costs, and the possibility of catastrophic, cascading failures. If the nation is to meet some of the important challenges of the 21st century, a new paradigm for the renewal of critical infrastructure systems is needed. This book discusses the essential components of this new paradigm, and outlines a framework to ensure that ongoing activities, knowledge, and technologies can be aligned and leveraged to help meet multiple national objectives.




Sustainable Urban and Regional Infrastructure Development: Technologies, Applications and Management


Book Description

"This book aims to bridge the gap in the current literature by addressing the overall problems present in major infrastructure in society, and the technologies that may be applied to overcome these problems"--Provided by publisher.




Sustainable and Resilient Critical Infrastructure Systems


Book Description

Sustainable and resilient critical infrastructure systems is an emerging paradigm in an evolving era of depleting assets in the midst of natural and man-made threats to provide a sustainable and high quality of life with optimized resources from social, economic, societal and environmental considerations. The increasing complexity and interconnectedness of civil and other interdependent infrastructure systems (electric power, energy, cyber-infrastructures, etc.) require inter- and multidisciplinary expertise required to engineer, monitor, and sustain these distributed large-scale complex adaptive infrastructure systems. This edited book is motivated by recent advances in simulation, modeling, sensing, communications/information, and intelligent and sustainable technologies that have resulted in the development of sophisticated methodologies and instruments to design, characterize, optimize, and evaluate critical infrastructure systems, their resilience, and their condition and the factors that cause their deterioration. Specific topics discussed in this book include, but are not limited to: optimal infrastructure investment allocation for sustainability, framework for manifestation of tacit critical infrastructure knowledge, interdependencies between energy and transportation systems for national long term planning, intelligent transportation infrastructure technologies, emergent research issues in infrastructure interdependence research, framework for assessing the resilience of infrastructure and economic systems, maintenance optimization for heterogeneous infrastructure systems, optimal emergency infrastructure inspection scheduling, and sustainable rehabilitation of deteriorated transportation infrastructure systems.




In Our Own Backyard


Book Description

This volume takes a fresh lookâ€"primarily from a technological perspectiveâ€"at the nation's "infrastructure": a collection of diverse modes that function as a system supporting a wide range of economic and social activities. Within an infrastructure system, operating and maintenance procedures, management practices, and development policies (i.e., the software) must work together with the facilities' hardware. This study has a strongly local perspective, drawing valuable information from workshops held in Phoenix, Cincinnati, and Boston. These workshops illustrated common elements of local experience that offer infrastructure practitioners, policymakers, and the public at large both understanding and guidance in the form of specific strategies that can lead toward "win-win" situations, where parties with potentially opposing interests seek a way to resolve infrastructure issues so that all parties gain. Local issues, combined across many regions, give infrastructure its strategic national significance. The book recommends specific principles that should be applied in national policy to support effective local infrastructure development and management.




An Economic Theory Perspective on Optimal Design of Government of Regional Infrastructure in Australia


Book Description

Australia is facing a potentially huge need for investment in infrastructure investment in the coming decades to deal with growing population, shifting economic and demographic patterns, and adaptation to sea level rise and other effects of climate change. There is, however, an institutional challenge that is making the necessary financing and investment difficult to come by. The basic problem is that the government institutions responsible for raising revenue and expending it do not match up well with the regions that infrastructure systems serve, regions that typically cross governmental decision-making boundaries.This paper applies an economic theory approach to this problem. The relevant literature in public choice, public economic and fiscal federalism is reviewed to uncover economic thinking about 'optimal' government institutional design. Then more specific thinking about infrastructure governance is discussed. A consideration of the economic meaning of regions follows. Then the specifics of the Australian constitution as it pertains to regional infrastructure, with a focus on transport, are presented. And the theory and practice are tied together to formulate an economics-based framework for optimal design for Australian infrastructure governance. The paper closes with some policy conclusions.