Towards A Systematic Model For Classification of Infrastructure Systems

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_25How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Infra-systems classification; Infra-systems and Competitiveness

Abstract

Infrastructure, by definition, refers to those systems that facilitate, nurture and sustain the economic activities of society in a manner conducive to the welfare and wealth-creation of its people. Over the years, with economic development and technological changes, the nature of infrastructure required for economic activities has undergone a sea-change. In the first place, the infrastructure used to be predominantly physical and static in nature; this is no more so. Most infra-projects, today, have intangible and dynamic elements built over the physical elements transport - communication, logistics, supply chain management, support-services, advisory services etc. Appropriate infrastructure is a key factor in the success of a business – anywhere, anytime. With economic development and technological changes, the requirements of infrastructure have undergone a sea-change to include a whole variety of products and services. The purpose of this paper is to explore the logic of evolution of the infrastructure systems over the ages, understand their significance in the success of the businesses being sustained. The developing countries which represent the vast majority of the world need to create and provide infrastructure to nurture their businesses in a big way, in a short span of time; only then can they hope to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots. In this chase and quest, the author believes, clear understanding of the infrastructure requirements and their classifications would go a long way in our ability to plan and create them in the most effective manner. The methodology employed is exploring the historical evolution of infrastructure-systems and then exploring classification-attempts in the past. In the absence of any such attempts, author has looked for systems of classifications in other domains that can be relevant to the domain of infrastructure. The resulting analysis has helped zero-in on a system of classification. This is the finding of this paper – a system of classification of infrastructure-sub-systems is proposed. Impacts/advantages of the classification system: [1] It becomes a checklist for all future projects of infrastructure and would facilitate their designing, planning and execution. [2] By linking the infra-project to the objectives of overall development would help create tangible benchmarks for comparison. [3] In the 21st century, infra-systems have a wider role of creating and sustaining the competitiveness of nations. The effectiveness of the infra-systems, the speed of execution, the relative costs of execution etc. would have significant impact on the competitiveness of the firm/nation and hence on its competitive advantage.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - P. Bala Bhaskaran
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/05/26
TI  - Towards A Systematic Model For Classification of Infrastructure Systems
BT  - Proceedings of the International Conference on Infrastructure Development and Sustainability (ICIDS 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 447
EP  - 464
SN  - 3005-155X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_25
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-685-2_25
ID  - Bhaskaran2026
ER  -