Infrastructure_Anders

The definition of infrastructure according to dictionary.com is “the underlying framework of a system or organisation”. I find Wikipedia’s definition as one of the best: “Infrastructure is generally a set of interconnected structural elements that provide the framework supporting an entire structure”.

In 2007 we depend on a number of infrastructures to work without failure. These critical infrastructures include telecommunications, electrical power systems, gas and oil storage and transportation, banking and finance, transportation, water supply systems just to mention a few of them. We can divide threats against these into to categories, physical threats and cyber-threats. Because private companies own many of these networks it is of high importance that the government and the private sector work close together to maintain the national security.

Anthony Sutcliffe’s article describes the development of the street transport. The unusually rapid economic growth in the later 1890s and the early years of the 20^th century go close together with the discoveries within the field of mechanical engineering. This economic growth was associated with a new phase in the urbanisation of the industrialized world. “This phase was associated with the development of the theory of modern planning and, to a large extent, the practice of planning” (p23). Sutcliffe suggests that this development is the product of the urban transport revolution. The need for movement within the cities. First there were attempts with the steam engine and later on the transport system which relayed on electric power (first public electric trolley system in Richmond, Virginia). The improvement of the transport network (infrastructure) increased the accessibility of the urban land.

From the New Yorker article we realize how complex the building of a water power plant can be. They needed to create new roads and airplane runways on the frozen lakes just to be able to transport all equipment to the building site. All these efforts just to maintain the modern society’s energy consumption safe.