- Feds Urge Secrecy Over Network Outages (June 23, 2004)
...information concerning even a single event may present a grave risk to the infrastructure." If the FCC is going to mandate reporting, the DHS argued, it should... - Bush Aides Admit Serious Mistakes on Iraq (September 9, 2003)
...e acknowledged that they vastly underestimated the damage to the country's infrastructure and greatly overestimated the amount of oil revenue that could be used to... - US Vuln Info-Sharing Program Draws Fire (February 22, 2004)
...y that it may do more harm than good. The so-called Protected Critical Infrastructure Information (PCII) program allows corporations who run key elements of... - Turn Off Your Tunnel Vision (January 6, 2002)
...... - The strange battle of Shah-i-Kot (March 22, 2002)
...... - Huge Trade Deal Draws Russia to Iraq (August 17, 2002)
... It will include new projects as well as the modernisation of Soviet-built infrastructure in Iraq, but will not violate United Nations trade sanctions against Baghd... - Pentagon Admits War Planning Mistakes (July 24, 2003)
...hard to avoid that." The U.S. says it also had no idea how badly Iraq's infrastructure had been neglected over the past three decades. The cost of putting the... - Israel Goes on West Bank Rampage (March 27, 2004)
...Israel has been destroying roads and vandalising vital infrastructure across the occupied West Bank in an apparent attempt to weaken the Palesti... - India Renews Call for US to Declare Pakistan a Terrorist State (July 17, 2002)
...o declare Pakistan a terrorist state for failing to dismantle a "terrorist infrastructure" inside its borders. A senior Indian official reported on Monday that t... - Sharon: Israel Offensive to Continue (April 9, 2002)
... fulfill the decision of the Cabinet that calls for the destruction of the infrastructure of the terror groups," Sharon said in remarks broadcast on Israel Televisi... - US Strikes at Iraqi Resistance (June 30, 2003)
...ot out elements attempting to undermine coalition efforts to restore basic infrastructure and stability in the region". "We go in with such overwhelming combat... - Half-Trillion Dollar Deficit Still Not Enough to Fund Iraq (September 8, 2003)
...It is fair to say that the level of decay and underinvestment in the Iraqi infrastructure was worse than almost anybody on the outside anticipated," said one senior... - A Mission Imperiled (August 20, 2003)
...ter and electricity, the ambushes of American soldiers and the sabotage of infrastructure. The upsurge of terrorism, which began earlier this month with the dead... - Vengeful Israel Rains Rockets on Gaza City (March 16, 2004)
...tating attacks. “We planned this attack to be a major one, to target their infrastructure, to show them that not only can we kill you, but destroy your infrastructu... - Iraq’s 'Sovereign' Government to Have Little Control Over Oil Money (June 22, 2004)
...perty" by Saddam Hussein's regime; $315 million for rebuilding electricity infrastructure; $460 million for reconstruction of Iraq's oil infrastructure; and $500 mi... - Transportation
- Utilities
- Electricity
- Natural gas
- Coal delivery
- Water supply
- Sewers
- Telephone service
- Radio and television bandwidth allocation
- Cable service
- Municipal services
Infrastructure
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Infrastructure is the set of interconnected structural elements that provide the framework for supporting the entire structure. The term is often used very abstractly. For instance, computer aided software engineering tools are sometimes described as part of the infrastructure of a development shop, and the term infrastructural capital in economics may be overly broad, as it includes a range from clothing to a continent-spanning canal system. This term can overlap with the notion of internal improvements and public works.
Definition disputes
In national security, the term "critical infrastructure" is also extremely broad (although it should be less inclusive as not all infrastructure should be considered critical) and includes support, e.g. for banking, and other such processes of questionable merit. One issue is the necessity of means of protection, and of accounting, in increasing value of life. Advocates of a broad definition usually argue that without these "critical" systems, the rest of the infrastructure is looted, burned, or not safe to use.
Another issue is whether means of persuasion, like computer or radio or television technology, can qualify as infrastructure in any sense, as it is more belief-sustaining than life-sustaining. The arguments parallel those for means of protection, with conservatives generally asserting that belief in a common view of reality, especially in emergency response, is critical to survival.
Urban planning usage
The term is used most often in an urban planning context to denote the facilities that support specific land uses and built environment. This article focuses on those, to avoid the more political issues above.
Typically, infrastructure in this context denotes two general groups of support systems: transportation modalities (roads, rail, etc.) and utilities. These typically compose both public and private systems, and some ambiguously held in common.
Infrastructure may also refer to necessary municipal services, whether provided by the government or by private companies. If provided by nature, e.g. the flow of a river, they are called nature's services and are distincted (at least in economics) as the product of natural capital. This may be augmented or directed by infrastructural capital, e.g. a dam or canal or irrigation ditch. In general what is called infrastructure tends to be very embedded in the natural landscape and cannot be moved from place to place. Even municipal services rely necessarily on fixed locations, e.g. fire stations in central positions in a city, transmission towers on tall buildings, etc..
Infrastructure (in the civic sense) includes: