Towards resource-efficient and service-oriented integrated infrastructure operation

• Autores: Katy Roelich, Christof Knoeri, Julia K. Steinberger, Liz Varga, Phil T. Blythe
• Localización: Technological Forecasting and Social Change, ISSN-e 1873-5509, Vol. 92, Nº. 1, 2015, págs. 40-52
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Infrastructure is a means to an end: it is built, maintained and expanded in order to enable the functioning of society. Present infrastructure operation is characterised by: governance based on unmanaged growing demand, which is both inefficient and ultimately unsustainable; lack of integration of the end-users, in terms of the variety of their wants, needs and behaviours; separate and parallel delivery of different infrastructure streams prohibiting joint solutions. To achieve long-term sustainability, infrastructure needs to be designed and operated to provide essential service delivery at radically decreased levels of resource use. This new approach will need to: (1) incorporate the end-user, in terms of their wants and behaviours; (2) focus on the service provided; (3) use Information and Communication Technologies more effectively; (4) integrate the operation of different infrastructure systems; (5) be governed in a manner that recognises the complexity and interconnectedness of infrastructure systems; and (6) rethink current infrastructure valuation. Possible configurations incorporating these aspects with the explicit goal of contributing to long-term sustainability could be Multi-Utility Service Companies or �MUSCos�. This article presents new insights and ideas generated by considering the challenge of the transition towards a MUSCo infrastructure.