Next Generation Infrastructures - part 1

Infrastructures for energy, water, transport, information and communications services create the conditions for livability and economic development. They are the backbone of our society. Similar to our arteries and neural systems that sustain our human bodies, most people however take infrastructures for granted. That is, until they break down or service levels go down.

In many countries around the globe infrastructures are ageing. They require substantial investments to meet the challenges of increasing population, urbanization, resource scarcity, congestion, pollution, and so on. Infrastructures are vulnerable to extreme weather events, and therewith to climate change.
Technological innovations, such as new technologies to harvest renewable energy, are one part of the solution. The other part comes from infrastructure restructuring. Market design and regulation, for example, have a high impact on the functioning and performance of infrastructures.

When it comes to the challenges we will face in the future we would like to refer to the Grand Challenge driving the Next Generation Infrastructure 2013 conference in Australia:


"Given that infrastructure is not an 'engineering artefact' but an 'agent of change', is it possible to imagine infrastructure systems that can meet the needs of twice today's population with half today's resources while providing twice the livability? (Factor 8)".

This course will give you a starting point for addressing this 'grand challenge' ; it  will  help you to understand the complexity of  infrastructure systems. Complexity is one of key words of this course and we will describe the tremendous implications for the design and governance of infrastructure systems.  Part II of the MOOC NGI (September/Otober 2014) will have a more applied nature: the focus will be on smart, secure and sustainable infrastructures ( smart grids, eco cities, ICT/big data  &performance of infrastructures and asset management).