Infrastructure is generally a set of interconnected structural elements that provide the framework supporting an entire structure. The term has diverse meanings in different fields, but is perhaps most widely understood to refer to roads, airports, and utilities. These various elements may collectively be termed civil infrastructure, municipal infrastructure, or simply public works, although they may be developed and operated as private-sector or government enterprises. In other applications, infrastructure may refer to information technology, informal and formal channels of communication, software development tools, political and social networks, beliefs held by members of particular groups. Still underlying these more general uses is the concept that infrastructure provides organizing structure and support for the system or organization it serves, whether it is a city, a nation, or a corporation. Economically infrastructure could be seen to be the structural elements of an economy which allow for production of goods and services without themselves being part of the production process. e.g. roads allows the transport of raw materials and finished products. Municipal infrastructure typically includes transportation, sewer, reservoir, potable water supply systems, police stations and local jails, and other infrastructural capital - the built environment - under the jurisdiction of local government. ... Look up Public works in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The private sector of a nations economy consists of all that is outside the state. ... Information and communication technology spending in 2005 Information technology (IT), as defined by the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), is the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware. ... A social network is a social structure made of nodes (which are generally individuals or organizations) that are tied by one or more specific types of relations, such as values, visions, idea, financial exchange, friends, kinship, dislike, trade, web links, sexual relations, disease transmission (epidemiology), or airline routes. ... Look up city, City in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... One of the most influential doctrines in history is that all humans are divided into groups called nations. ... Corporate redirects here. ...

The word seems to have originated in 19th century France, and throughout the first half of the 20th century was used to refer primarily to military installations. The term came to prominence in the United States in the 1980s following publication of America in Ruins (Choate and Walter, 1981), which initiated a public-policy discussion of the nation’s “infrastructure crisis,” purported to be caused by decades of inadequate investment and poor maintenance of public works. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... A military installation is a facility directly owned and operated by and/or for the military or one of its branches. ...

That public-policy discussion was hampered by lack of a precise definition for infrastructure. The U.S. National Research Council (NRC) committee cited Senator Stafford, who commented at hearings before the Subcommittee on Water Resources, Transportation, and Infrastructure; Committee on Environment and Public Works; that “probably the word infrastructure means different things to different people." The NRC panel then sought to rectify the situation by adopting the term "public works infrastructure", referring to "...both specific functional modes - highways, streets, roads, and bridges; mass transit; airports and airways; water supply and water resources; wastewater management; solid-waste treatment and disposal; electric power generation and transmission; telecommunications; and hazardous waste management--and the combined system these modal elements comprise. A comprehension of infrastructure spans not only these public works facilities, but also the operating procedures, management practices, and development policies that interact together with societal demand and the physical world to facilitate the transport of people and goods, provision of water for drinking and a variety of other uses, safe disposal of society's waste products, provision of energy where it is needed, and transmission of information within and between communities."^[1]-1... Robert Theodore Stafford (born August 8, 1913) is a retired American politician from Vermont. ... The U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Subcommittee on Transportation Safety, Infrastructure Security, and Water Quality is one of six subcommittees of the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works. ... The U.S. House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is a standing committee of the United States House of Representatives, the lower house of Congress. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... A city-centre street in Frankfurt, Germany A residential street in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA A street is a public thoroughfare in the built environment. ... Mountain road with hairpin turns in the French Alps For other uses, see Road (disambiguation). ... A log bridge in the French Alps near Vallorcine. ... Skytrain Bangkok. ... Water supply is the process of self-provision or provision by third parties of water of various qualities to different users. ... Water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially useful to humans. ... Wastewater is any water that has been adversely affected in quality by anthropogenic influence. ... Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Waste For the company, see Waste Management, Inc. ... For delivered electrical power, see Electrical power industry. ... Copy of the original phone of Alexander Graham Bell at the Musée des Arts et Métiers in Paris Telecommunication is the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. ... This article describes hazardous waste as a substance; for the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal see Basel Convention // Put simply, a Hazardous waste is waste that poses substantial or potential threats to public health or the environment and generally exhibits one... Look up Public works in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

In subsequent years the word has grown in popularity and been applied with increasing generality to suggest the internal framework discernible in any technology system or business organization. The term “critical infrastructure” has been widely adopted to distinguish those infrastructure elements that, if significantly damaged or destroyed, would cause serious disruption of the dependent system or organization. Storm or earthquake damage 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 for emergency services to operate; these routes would be deemed critical infrastructure. Similarly, an on-line reservations system might be critical infrastructure for an airline. Business organizations is an area of law that covers the broad array of rules governing the formation and operation of different kinds of entities by which individuals can organize to do business. ... A shelf cloud associated with a heavy or severe thunderstorm over Enschede, Netherlands A storm is any disturbed state of an astronomical bodys atmosphere, especially affecting its surface, and strongly implying severe weather. ... An earthquake is a result from the sudden release of stored energy in the Earths crust that creates seismic waves. ... Emergency services are public services that deal with emergencies and other aspects of Public Safety. ... An Airbus A380 of Emirates Airline An airline provides air transport services for passengers or freight. ...

Rural infrastructure

Rural infrastructure differs from urban infrastructure in the amount of public investment per unit of geographical area. in general, public investment in infrastructure tends to parallel the number of households in a geographical area. The funding of rural infrastructure is most often limited by the depth of the public revenue base in the area, which is often dependent on the presence or absence of industrial plants, other corporate employment nodes or community commerce. Although some publicly controlled assets critical to human survival exist in rural areas, utilities and transport tend to be much less extensive and thus less convenient or entirely unavailable to much of the general populace. Rural areas usually do not have extensive pipeline systems for distribution of potable water; inhabitants rely on nature's services for drinking, cooking and bathing water drawn from private wells or from streams, ponds and lakes. Private infrastructural capital such as dams, canals or irrigation ditches may be utilized for water diversion and supply. Rural societies seldom have community facilities for waste collection or treatment. Inhabitants must make their own arrangements for disposal of waste and rubbish; such private arrangements often produce conditions deleterious or dangerous to the local society, or even to neighboring societies. Because the necessary capital investment is lower, systems for distribution of electricity and communications are more common in rural areas than systems for distribution of water or collection of waste. Rural areas tend to rely on community emergency response teams, such as volunteer firefighting organizations, rather than funding more costly fire and rescue departments comprised of full-time paid employees. The number of law enforcement personnel and frequency of patrols in rural areas tends to reflect population densities, the presence of public facilities or commecial enterprises and the volume of traffic along the area's surface transportation routes. Public infrastructure means any infrastructural capital under public ownership - that is, any such capital asset that is not firm-specific infrastructure. ... Critical infrastructure is a term used in the USAs National Strategy for Homeland Security, which was issued in July 2002; it is defined as those systems and assets, whether physical or virtual, so vital to the United States that the incapacity or destruction of such systems and assets would... A public utility is a company that maintains the infrastructure for a public service. ... Drinking water This article focuses on water as we experience it every day. ... Natures services is an umbrella term for the ways in which nature benefits humans, particularly those benefits that can be measured in economic terms. ... Infrastructural capital refers to any physical means of production or means of protection beyond that which can be gathered or found directly in nature, i. ... In the United States a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), sometimes known as a Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT), or Neighborhood Emergency Team (NET), is a group of volunteer emergency workers who have received basic training in disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, light search and rescue...

Spotting hidden infrastructure

In the USA, underground lines are often marked by color. This is especially true when excavation is taking place at a site. The standard marking colors are red for electric power lines and lighting; yellow for gas, oil, steam, petroleum and gaseous materials; orange for communication, alarm or signal lines, cable or conduit; blue for water, irrigation, and slurry lines; and green for sewer and drain lines.^[2]

See also

• 3D Infrastructure Business Intelligence
• Airport infrastucture
• Cost overrun
• Critical Infrastructure Protection
• Infrastructural power
• Infrastructure Canada
• Infrastructure of Cuba
• Infrastructure bias
• Infrastructure in London
• Infrastructure for Resilient Internet Systems
• Infrastructure and Energy Committee
• Infrastructure Consortium for Africa
• Infrastructure and Communities
• Megaproject
• Maritime infrastructure
• Mission critical
• Public works
• Superstructure

This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Cost overrun is defined as excess of actual cost over budget. ... Category: ... Infrastructural power is the capacity of the state to penetrate civil society and to use this penetration to enforce policy throughout its entire territory. ... Infrastructure Canada is a Canadian government agency of Industry Canada. ... Cuban infrastructure is significant and includes: massive Spanish fortifications built in principal ports [1] (e. ... In economics and social policy, infrastructure bias refers to the fact that the location and availability of pre-existing infrastructure such as roads and telecommunications facilities influences social and economic development. ... Electric power supply Several power stations were built to generate electricity in the centre of London, including the famous power stations at Bankside and Battersea (both now disused). ... IRIS, the acronym for Infrastructure for Resilient Internet Systems, is a decentralized infrastructure using distributed hash tables that will enable large-scale distributed applications. ... The Infastructure and Energy Committee of the African Unions Economic, Social and Cultural Council is responsible for: Energy Transport Communications Infrastructure Tourism Categories: African Union | Economic, Social and Cultural Council ... The Infrastructure Consortium for Africa is a major new effort to accelerate progress to meet the urgent needs of Africa in support of economic growth and development. ... Infrastructure and Communities is a sub-level cabinet portfolio under the Minister of Transport (Canada). ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Marine architecture is the construction of structures which support ship transport. ... // Summary Mission Critical is an adventure game released in 1995 by Legend Entertainment. ... Look up Public works in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... // Sociological concept In social sciences, superstructure is the set of socio-psychological feedback loops that maintain a coherent and meaningful structure in a given society, or part thereof. ...

References

1. ^ (Infrastructure for the 21st Century, Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 1987)
2. ^ Consumer Circuit, June 2007. Published by AEP Ohio

Nickname: Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location of Washington, D.C., in relation to the states Maryland and Virginia Coordinates: , Country United States Federal District District of Columbia Government  - Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D)  - D.C. Council Chairperson: Vincent C. Gray (D) Ward 1: Jim Graham (D) Ward 2...

External links

• World Bank Infrastructure for Development
• Next Generation Infrastructures international research programme

Look up infrastructure in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.