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Hello everyone and welcome back to the course.

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In this video we will introduce you to the
basic concepts that we use in discussing the

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socio-technical complexity of infrastructure
systems.

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For this purpose we have provided a glossary
of important terms that we use throughout

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the course.

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Please read through it and familiarize yourself
with these terms and what they mean.

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What you should first wonder about is:

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what is the definition of infrastructure,
or:

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what is a useful definition of infrastructure?

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If you think about infrastructures, the first
thing that probably comes to mind is a highway

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or a railroad network, or any other large
scale technological system.

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Imagine cables, pipelines, roads or rail that
interconnect things like people, buildings

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and cities.

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The scale of this system may be:

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Local or regional, as in the case of drinking
water and sewage infrastructure.

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However, most of today's infrastructure systems
cross national borders.

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They span entire continents or even the globe.

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Think of electricity infrastructures, and
of course telecommunication networks and the

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internet.

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If your focus is on the physical reality,
then you will appreciate infrastructures as

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truly impressive feats of engineering.

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They are the megastructures of modern times.

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Infrastructures are incredibly complex physical
networks, composed of millions of links and

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nodes.

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We can also think of the technological expert
knowledge that we need to design, build, maintain

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and operate these infrastructures.

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Without science and engineering knowledge,
infrastructures could never have been brought

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into being.

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They physically manifest themselves in our
landscape in the form of roads, railways,

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airports and seaports, overhead lines and
other capital intensive hardware.

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However, the technological or physical dimension
is only part of the story of infrastructure.

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A social scientist studying infrastructure
will see a social system, in which millions

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of users are interconnected.

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He will also see a system that connects the
producers with the users of a specific service.

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And what the social scientist sees is as relevant
as what the engineering scientist sees.

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So infrastructures have a physical and a social
dimension.

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And even if, for the sake of scientific analysis,
we tend to separate the two dimensions, they

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cannot be separated in practice.

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For example, car owners are not likely to
switch to electric vehicles if they cost much

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more than a conventional vehicle, or if there
are only limited means for charging them.

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One of our challenges in this course is therefore
to understand, deeply understand  infrastructures

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as socio-technical systems.

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In such systems, a complex physical network
is intertwined with a complex social network.

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Each infrastructure system was brought into
being to provide a specific service that we

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consider essential for our well being, for
socio-economic development.

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The provision of safe drinking water and the
treatment of wastewater and solid wastes are

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obviously essential for public health.

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Infrastructures for mobility of people and
goods have allowed us to explore the world.

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They have expanded markets and enabled global
trade.

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In modern societies everything depends on
the uninterrupted supply of electricity, communication

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and information services.

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In fact, infrastructure related services are
so essential, that national governments take

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responsibility for the accessibility, availability,
affordability and social acceptability of

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these services.

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This may imply that the infrastructure is
owned and operated by a government body.

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However, as we will see, there are alternative
ways to ensure the reliability and quality

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of infrastructure related services.

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Let us take the example of the electricity
infrastructure.

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The first true electricity infrastructure
came online in 1882.

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It consisted of a single coal fired generator
providing power to the light bulbs of 59 customers

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within a New York neighborhood.

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Soon, similar systems sprouted in major cities
around the world.

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Eventually, these local neighborhood systems
were expanded to link entire urban areas with

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a diversity of electrical devices and multiple
generators operating simultaneously.

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Gradually, these isolated urban grids were
linked to provide backup power and improve

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stability.

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They were extended to connect progressively
larger and more remote power generation facilities.

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Today's electricity infrastructures link these
formerly separate networks into national and

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even supra-national power systems.

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Moreover, these power systems are fed by an
increasingly powerful and technologically

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diverse array of generators delivering electricity
for our daily needs.

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Throughout most of the 20th century, the key
tasks of electricity generation, transmission,

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distribution and supply were concentrated
within a single organization per country.

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A so-called vertically integrated utility.

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In many countries this single organization
was a public monopoly.

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In the case of a private monopoly, it was
for certain heavily regulated by the government

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to safeguard affordability, availability,
safety and other public values.

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In recent decades, however, processes of infrastructure
reform have induced so-called vertical unbundling

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of the electricity value chain.

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In many countries, power generation has largely
been privatized and now takes place in a competitive

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market.

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Similarly, energy wholesale and even energy
retail markets have in many countries been

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opened up to competition.

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With these markets, new players have entered
the scene, such as market operators, traders

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and brokers.

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In between power generation and supply to
end-users is the transport over grids.

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These grids are still owned, operated and
planned by monopolistic system operators.

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They are known as TSOs
- transmission system operators -

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and DSOs
- distribution system operators.

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Why is there no competition between electricity
grids?

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This is because the grid is a natural monopoly.

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The existing infrastructure network
was established over many decades

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and represents a massive capital cost.

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The cost of building a competing grid is simply
too high.

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This is the case for many infrastructure networks,
however...

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New technologies may change that picture.

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In the world of information and telecommunication
services, for example, we have seen competing

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networks come up over the past two decades,
both fixed and wireless networks.

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As you can see, the social system has become
much more complex as a consequence of electricity

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infrastructure reform.

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Meanwhile, in the electricity infrastructure,
new technologies are being introduced,

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for example to farm wind and solar power.

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The scale of power generation is also changing.

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Many consumers of electricity
have become producers at the same time.

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Think of consumers' solar panels
on their roofs or small scale units

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for the cogeneration of heat and power in
households.

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Consumers have actually become
prosumers of electricity.

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These technological changes can
endanger the stability of the grid.

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To make sure that doesn't happen,
operational practices need to be revised and

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new rules need to be implemented.

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This is just another example of how the social
and the technical dimensions of the electricity

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infrastructure are closely intertwined.

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Infrastructures become even more fascinating
if you realize that most of these systems

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have slowly interconnected local, regional
and national systems over several decades

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or even centuries.

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That implies that they were not designed as
the integrated systems that we know today.

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Rather than being designed as integrated systems,
they evolved as integrated large-scale systems.

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We do, however, expect them to function as
integrated systems, offering adequate service

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at all times, wherever we are.

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The reality, unfortunately, is that we cannot
take the availability of these services for

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granted, as many people in developing and
emerging economies know very well.

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Women and children in sub-Saharan Africa spend
many hours a day to get water and to collect

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the firewood they need for cooking.

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In a city like Bangalore, India, which is
the heart of India's IT industry, planned

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interruptions of drinking water and electrical
power supply are common.

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The city's infrastructures simply cannot keep
up with the massive influx of new citizens

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and the fast growth of the economy.

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So we are still a long way from ensuring reliable
water, energy and transportation services

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for the whole world.

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And, even when advanced infrastructure is
available, we are struggling to adapt our

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legacy systems to changing demands and preferences
of individual users and their societies.

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Local infrastructure failure may have mundane
causes such as wear and tear, or digging contractors

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that accidentally hit a pipeline or a cable.

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Even the occasional power blackout  may
hit us right here, as a consequence of a failure

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somewhere far away that cascades through the
continental network.

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And, to further complicate matters, failures
may also originate from other infrastructure

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systems.

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Which is because today's infrastructure systems
are largely interdependent.

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For example, drinking water infrastructure
needs electricity to power its pumps.

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Continental electricity infrastructure needs
telecom and information infrastructure.

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Because without that essential information
on the state of the network cannot be shared

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between national Transmission System Operators.

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Then mobile telecommunication infrastructure
critically depends on electricity.

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In other words, we are dealing with a system
of interdependent infrastructure systems.

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The socio-technical complexity of modern infrastructure
is unprecedented, which is one of the reasons

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why we refer to Next Generation Infrastructure.

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The need to deal with that complexity is a
given.

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After all, how else are we to supply the next
generation of the world population with essential

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infrastructure services?

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We will use the conceptual framework of Complex
Adaptive Systems to capture the dynamics of

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infrastructure systems.

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These dynamics will become clear when looking
at the operational time scales and the evolutionary

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time scales of infrastructure systems.

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Complex Adaptive Systems theory will help
us understand how changes in interactions

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between decision makers give rise to unpredictable
and possibly undesired behavior of the system

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as a whole.

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For that reason we will introduce complexity
theory, in week 2.

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Eventually, we will show you how the development
and services of infrastructures depend on

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the decisions of many different actors in
the system:

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investors, owners, operators, regulators,
policy makers and users; to name some of the

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most important actors.

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More importantly, we will show you how incentives
and regulations shape those decisions.

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You will learn to not underestimate the power
you have, as a user, with millions of other

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users, to change the pathways of infrastructure
development.

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Thank you for your attention.

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The next web lecture is an animation, which
will also help you to understand the complexity

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of infrastructures.