Harvard University

Infrastructure is the kind of thing you should forget about.”

“Very often you’re reminded about the importance of infrastructure when it malfunctions.

“So, ‘infra’ meaning ‘under’ illuminates the idea that it’s a fundamental level that makes the deployment of activities possible.

“For example, road infrastructure enables circulation. Telephone networks enable phone calls.”

Though most of the public might not think of it that way, communications is a major aspect of infrastructure.”

“Before the telephone and subsequent telephone switchboards and exchanges in the late 19^th century, communication was cumbersome and the range restricted. As technology develops, new aspects of infrastructure bounce into notice.

“Until the early 1990s, most people hadn’t heard of the Internet, and most wouldn’t have considered it as a part of infrastructure.

“In 2020, during the pandemic, the Internet and Wi-Fi connections became essential to work, education, health care, and more.”

Cities, states, and the federal government … have invested insufficiently in the physical infrastructure.”

“Bridges, roads, waterways and even hospital and school buildings have deteriorated. Governments reduce their capital budgets in time of scarcity.

“And even in good times these entities tend not to invest sufficiently in preventative maintenance.”

Infrastructure spending can reduce unemployment in several ways.”

“First are the direct jobs created when investments are made in maintenance and repair as well as adding new infrastructure, such as electric vehicle charging stations or new bicycle paths.

“Second are the indirect jobs created when businesses, including neighborhood small businesses, can reach new customers because of better Wi-Fi or faster deliveries, for example, and thus can expand their markets and hire more workers.

“Third are the ways that better infrastructure helps people get to a job in the first place.”

Green infrastructure could have three meanings.”

“One, it can refer to how we build—think using less asphalt and including more green in road designs and requiring better energy consumption in permitting building uses.

“Two, green includes the supports for a more sustainable economy—for example renewables.

“And three … better management of wastewater including planting green and adding ponds instead of allowing runoff which overflows sewers and damages rivers.”

We no longer live in a classic world where there’s nature on the one side and technology on the other.”

“We live in a techno-natural world. That means that, if we want to fight climate change, for example, we’ll have to use a combination of technology and nature.

“China, for example, has started using planted wet zones to deal with possible flooding. So, in many ways, we see the beginning of a blurring between nature and infrastructure.

“If we want to really fight against climate change we need to mobilize natural resources as well as artificial things. We need both.”