Action in 8 Domains for an 8 Factor Improvement: Infrastructure with Agency

Abstract: “Infrastructure with agency” embraces both the physical assets for extraction, production, distribution, and storage of utilities, and infrastructure use for the purpose of trade, business and societal well-being. The micro-level interactions of infrastructure use lead to macro-level structures and patterns which satisfy demand and determine the value of infrastructure to users. Interactions generate and are generated by non-linearities and feedbacks within the various integrated systems and provide a source for exponential growth. This article considers how interactions between Infrastructure, utility businesses, users and consumers, and the government can enable co-evolutionary exponential growth. Eight specific recommendations are made to address an eight factor demand growth. The fruitfulness of these recommendations is impossible to predict because the system is complex, that is evolutionary and adaptive, and depends on future contexts, not least, technologies we cannot imagine today. Citation: Varga, L. (2014). Action in 8 Domains for an 8 Factor Improvement: Infrastructure with Agency. In: Campbell P. and Perez P. (Eds), Proceedings of the International Symposium of Next Generation Infrastructure, 1-4 October 2013, SMART Infrastructure Facility, University of Wollongong, Australia.