Introduction

to Urban services and Infrastructure Part 2

If we look at a city or city district, roughly we can make a subdivision into buildings,
overground infrastructure (often for transportation) and so-called technical infrastructure.

The technical infrastructure is the focus of this videos theme, which will be addressed the
coming weeks for each of the challenges that define each weeks content.

As you can see the technical infrastructure includes many different fields.

For this introduction to the theme of Urban services and infrastructure we will stick to the
three main flows related to physical, or technical infrastructure: energy, water and waste.

The energy infrastructure in general is subdivided into electricity, gas, direct energy cariers,
like liquid fuels.

And indirect energy carriers, like hot water (or in some cases cold water for cooling).

The water related infrastructure concerns supply related water flows, like drinking water
and secondary water.

But also waste water.

Waste and waste water treatment are often referred at as the sanitation infrastructure, as
they are literally connected to healthy living environment.

Waste water is subdivided often according to different qualities or separated wastewater

streams; grey water concerns all waste water except toilet waste water.

Black water is toilet waste water, while yellow and brown water concerns separated urine
and faeces flows.

But here also hot water and surface water flows are included as part of water infrastructure.

Waste infrastructure includes different solid waste fractions, often subdivide into organic
and anorganic waste flows, but also mixed (or grey) waste and residential versus industrial
waste.

One of the challenges of metropolitan areas nowadays is that these different technical
infrastructures are often interrelated, or even connected with one another.

Also, due to the before explained subdivision for different qualities of energy, water and
waste flows, this infrastructure gets more complex near to users and their connections.

This makes that it becomes more important by the day to be aware of these inter relations.

Jos Ortega y Gasset stated for that reason to be an engineer is not enough to be an
engineer.

Within this context of further complexity come in new dimensions due to data and ICT.

Ecologist Eugene Odum once subdivided our environment into 4 layers: the A-biotical layer,
the Biotical Layer, the Technical layer and the Physical layer.

Buildings and Infrastructures are part of the Technical layer.

Due to ICT ... this layered setup is not any more, by definition, location fixed, or vertically
aligned, as shows Benjamin Brettons subdivision of ICT related infrastructures within this
technical layer, which he calls the Stack.

This stack implies that nowadays, it is no longer a strict rule that a person is literally
connected by infrastructure to his or her direct neighbour.

These developments regarding urban services and infrastructures support the shift from a
'focus for the masses', and supply of fundamental services, towards 'new forms of
personalized supply', integrated and smart, often multi layered and potentially regenerative
systems.

Such opportunities for metropolitan solutions, at different scales, and regarding different
infrastructures, or combinations of them, like here the example of the solar bike road in The
Netherlands, will be the subject of the coming weeks regarding this theme.