Cities and Infrastructure: Synthesis and Perspectives
Program for the Human Environment
The Rockefeller University
1230 York Avenue
New York, NY 10021-6399
USA
Phone 212-327-7917
Fax 212-327-7519
ausubel@rockefeller.edu
This article, as well as the full publication in which it
originally appears, is also available on the National Academies Press
website, located at
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309037867/html/.
Citation: pp. 1-21 in Cities and Their Vital Systems:
Infrastructure, Past, Present, and Future, J.H. Ausubel and R.
Herman, eds., National Academy, Washington DC, 1988..
PDF Full Text: cities.pdf
Abstract:
The subject of this article is infrastructure, the built environment in
which we live, the way we use it, and how it may evolve in the future.
Citites are the summation and densest expression of infrastructure, or,
more accurately, a set of infrastructures, working sometimes in harmony,
sometimes with frustrating discord, to provide us with shelter, contact,
energy, water, and means to meet other human needs. The infrastructure is
a reflection of our social and historical evolution. It is a symbol of
what we are collectively, and its forms and functions sharpen our
understanding of the similarities and differences among regions, groups,
and cultures. The physical infrastructure consists of varous structures,
buildings, pipes, roads, rails, bridges, tunels, and wires. Equally
important and subject to change is the "software" for the physical
infrastructure, all the formal and informal rules for operation of the
systems.
URL: http://phe.rockefeller.edu/cities
Posted 12.16.02
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