This course provides foundation knowledge for planning and managing sustainable infrastructure and public services. By infrastructure we mean built facilities and networks – either above or below ground – that support health, safety, and welfare. This is a broad take that traditionally has included publicly- and privately-owned providers of systems such as:
• Utilities – gas and electricity, water supply and sewerage, waste collection and disposal
• Public Works – roads and bridges, dams and canals, ports and airports, railways
• Community Facilities – prisons, schools, parks, recreation, hospitals, libraries
• Telecommunications - telephony, internet, television, satellites, cable, broadband, etc.
Public services in this context refers to public or social programs designed to benefit a class or classes of citizens, including health care, housing, workfare, education etc.This course prepares students to be proficient in a life-cycle method of infrastructure planning and management, which starts with a needs assessment, and encompasses programming, planning, design, costing, budgeting, financing, operations, maintenance, rehabilitation, replacement/redesign, and evaluation. We will also cover selected infrastructure and service systems, to be selected by the professor in consultation with the students, in order to best meet their interests. These typically include transport, public health, water, sewage treatment, energy, and telecoms. This course provides professionals and researchers with the theory and the tools needed to perform basic infrastructure planning and research. This course is designed to provide a basis for life-long inquiry into infrastructure. It is for students of urban planning, urban design, landscape architecture, architecture, property development, civil and environmental engineering, public health, and public administration.