Zukunftsfähige Infrastruktur und Raumentwicklung

Supply and disposal systems have thus far had mainly a serving function. Since the responsibility of the technical planners of power and heating supply, for supply and disposal of water and waste water and for waste removal is to provide public services, they generally blindly follow housing developments, without influencing the developments as such. The demands on today’s systems and their structures are determined by ageing systems, demographic change, shortage of finances in the communities and last, but not least, the rising demands on environmental protection. More will, however, be required in future than simply maintaining, adapting or renewing the existing vast investments in infrastructures. This is the opportune time to inspect the existing systems and to render them sustainable: with efficient deployment of resources, fair distribution and availability and with a view to beneficial impacts on future spatial development. This volume traces these aspects through an analysis of the technical and regional economic factors and the impact of the various spatio-structural variables on spatial development. The individual systems share many characteristics, allowing some analogous conclusions. The options for making technical planning broadly subject to spatial planning are investigated and the practical application of instruments for regional planning of supply and disposal systems, the role of development density and the potentials for future management of material flow are discussed and analysed. The requirements for action listed in the conclusion demonstrate that much coordinated political action and planning control is required if the (still vaguely defined) goals for a sustainable infrastructure are to be achieved. It will be necessary, in particular, to motivate the technically specialised players to also contribute to sustainable spatial development.