Very Large Telescope.[18]*.Sports and recreational infrastructure, such asparks, sports facilities, the system of sports leagues and associations*.Cultural infrastructure, such as concert halls,museums,libraries, theatres, studios (film studios and recording studios), and specialized training facilities*.Business travel and tourism infrastructure, including both man-made and natural attractions, convention centers, hotels, restaurants,amusement parks, and other services that cater mainly to tourists and business travelers,as well as the systems for informing and attracting tourists, and travel insuranceUses of the termEngineering and constructionEngineersgenerally limit the use of the term infrastructure to describefixed assetsthat are in the form of a large network, in other words, hard infrastructure. Recent efforts to devise more generic definitions of infrastructure have typically referred to the network aspects of most of the structures, and to the accumulated value of investments in the networks as assets. One such effort defines infrastructure as the network of assets where the system as a whole is intended to be maintained indefinitely at a specified standard of service by the continuing replacement and refurbishmentof its components.[19]Civil defense and economic developmentSee also:Civil defense by countryCivil defenseplanners anddevelopmental economistsgenerally refer to both hard and soft infrastructure, includingpublic servicessuch asschoolsandhospitals,emergency servicessuch as police and fire fighting, and basicfinancial services. The notion ofInfrastructure-based developmentcombining long-term infrastructure investments by government agencies at central and regional levels withpublic private partnershipshas proven popular among Asian- notablySingaporeanandChinese, Mainland European and Latin American economists.MilitaryMilitarystrategists use the term infrastructure to refer to all building and permanent installations necessary for the support of military forces, whether they arestationed in bases, being deployed or engaged in operations, such as barracks, headquarters, airfields, communications facilities, stores of military equipment, portinstallations, and maintenance stations.[20]Critical infrastructureMain article:Critical infrastructureThe termcritical infrastructurehas been widely adopted to distinguish those infrastructure elements that, if significantly damaged or destroyed, would cause serious disruption of the dependentsystem or organization.Storm,flood, orearthquakedamage leading to loss of certain transportation routes in a city, for example bridges crossing a river, could make it impossible for people to evacuate, and foremergency servicesto operate; these routes would be deemed critical infrastructure. Similarly, an on-line bookingsystem might be critical infrastructure for anairline.Urban infrastructureUrbanormunicipal infrastructurerefers to hard infrastructure systems generally owned and operated bymunicipalities, such as streets, water distribution, and sewers. It may also include some of the facilities associated with soft infrastructure, such as parks, public pools and libraries.Green infrastructureMain article:Green infrastructureGreen infrastructureis a concept that highlights the importance of the natural environment in decisions aboutland use planning.[21][22]In particular there is an emphasis on the life support functions provided by a network of naturalecosystems, with an emphasis oninterconnectivityto support long-termsustainability. Examples include cleanwaterand healthy soils, as well as the moreanthropocentricfunctions such asrecreationand providing shade and shelterin and around towns and cities. The concept can be extended to apply to the management ofstormwaterrunoff at the local level through the use of natural systems, or engineered systems that mimic natural systems, to treat pollutedrunoff.[23][24]MarxismInMarxism, the term infrastructure is sometimes used as a synonym for base in thedialecticsynthetic pairbase and superstructure. However the Marxist notion of base is broader than the non-Marxist use of the term infrastructure, and some soft infrastructure, such as laws, governance, regulations and standards, would be considered by Marxists to be part of the superstructure, not the base.[25]Other usesIn other applications, the term infrastructure may refer toinformation technology, informal and formal channels of communication, software development tools,politicalandsocial networks, or beliefs held by members of particular groups. Still underlying these more conceptual uses is the idea that infrastructure provides organizing structure and support for the system or organization it serves, whether it is acity, anation, acorporation, or a collection of people with common interests. Examples includeIT infrastructure, research infrastructure, terrorist infrastructure, and tourism infrastructure.Related conceptsThe terminfrastructureis often confused with the following overlapping or related concepts.Land improvement and land developmentMain articles:Land improvementandLand developmentThe termsland improvementandland developmentare general terms that in some contexts may include infrastructure, but in the context of a discussion of infrastructure would refer only to smaller scale systems or works that are not included in infrastructure because they aretypically limited to a singleparcel of land, and are owned and operated by the land owner. For example, an irrigation canal that serves a region or district would be included with infrastructure, but the private irrigation systems on individual land parcels would be considered land improvements, not infrastructure. Service connections to municipal service and public utility networks would also be considered land improvements, not infrastructure.[26][27]Public works and public servicesMain articles:Public worksandPublic servicesThe termpublic worksincludes government owned and operated infrastructure as well as public buildings such as schools and court houses. Public works generally refers to physical assets needed to deliverpublic services. Public services include both infrastructure and services generally provided by government.Typical attributesHard infrastructure generally has the following attributes.Capital assets that provide servicesThese are physical assets that provide services. The people employed in the hard infrastructure sector generally maintain, monitor, and operate the assets, but do not offer services to the clients or users of the infrastructure. Interactions between workers and clients are generally limited toadministrative tasks concerning ordering, scheduling, or billing of services.Large networksThese are large networks constructed overgenerations, and are not often replaced as a whole system. The network provides services to a geographically defined area, and has a long life because its service capacity is maintained by continual refurbishment or replacement of components as they wear out.Historicity and interdependenceThe system or network tends to evolve over time as it is continuously modified, improved, enlarged, and as various components are rebuilt, decommissioned or adapted to other uses. The system components are interdependent and not usually capable of subdivision or separate disposal, and consequently are not readily disposable within the commercial marketplace. The system interdependencymay limit a component life to a lesser period than the expected life of the component itself.Natural monopolyThe systems tend to benatural monopolies, insofar thateconomies of scalemeans that multiple agencies providing a service are less efficient than would be the case if a single agency provided the service. This is because the assets have a high initial cost and a value that is difficult to determine. Once most of the system is built, the marginal cost of servicing additional clients or users tends to be relatively inexpensive, and may be negligible if there is no need to increase the peak capacity or the geographical extent of the network.Inpublic economicstheory, infrastructure assets such as highways and rai
Posted on: Wed, 08 Oct 2014 03:23:21 +0000
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