Infrastructure

Bas van Vliet

Infrastructures are network-bound large technological systems through which utility services such as drinking water and electricity or waste and sewerage services are supplied, distributed, and consumed. Infrastructures are relevant for green cities, as they enable and regulate the efficient supply, distribution, and consumption of environmentally relevant flows of energy, water, and materials. This article covers the past and present organization of infrastructures and explores the social and technical adaptations of infrastructures that are needed to make up a green city. The provision and consumption of water, energy, and waste services in cities, and the development of infrastructures to accommodate this, has followed similar patterns in all Western societies. In preindustrial times, the services were provided autonomously by individual traders and by consumers themselves. Water was obtained from individual wells, from canals, or from private water sellers; energy supplies like wood or charcoal were provided individually or by private sellers; and ...

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