Infrastructure Planning and Finance is a non-technical guide to the engineering, planning, and financing of major infrastucture projects in the United States, providing both step-by-step guidance, and a broad overview of the technical, political, and economic challenges of creating lasting infrastructure in the 21st Century.
Infrastructure Planning and Finance is designed for the local practitioner or student who wants to learn the basics of how to develop an infrastructure plan, a program, or an individual infrastructure project. A team of authors with experience in public works, planning, and city government explain the history and economic environment of infrastructure and capital planning, addressing common tools like the comprehensive plan, sustainability plans, and local regulations. The book guides readers through the preparation and development of comprehensive plans and infrastructure projects, and through major funding mechanisms, from bonds, user fees, and impact fees to privatization and competition.
The rest of the book describes the individual infrastructure systems: their elements, current issues and a 'how-to-do-it' section that covers the system and the comprehensive plan, development regulations and how it can be financed. Innovations such as decentralization, green and blue-green technologies are described as well as local policy actions to achieve a more sustainable city are also addressed. Chapters include water, wastewater, solid waste, streets, transportation, airports, ports, community facilities, parks, schools, energy and telecommunications. Attention is given to how local policies can ensure a sustainable and climate friendly infrastructure system, and how planning for them can be integrated across disciplines.
About the Author: Vicki Elmer is currently the Director of the Oregon Leadership in Sustainability (OLIS) graduate program at the University of Oregon where she teaches about sustainability and the urban environment. Before that she taught at UC/Berkeley's Department of City and Regional Planning for ten years. Dr. Elmer was also a planning director and public works director in the City of Berkeley, and City Manager in Eugene, Oregon and was the head of research at HUD's San Francisco office.
Elmer's current research is on the intersection of compact urban design, water recycling and the water-energy-waste nexus. She is on the International Water Association's Cities of the Future Committee and the Water Environmental Research Foundation's committee on sustainable wastewater management. Her B.A. is from the University of Michigan (1964), MS: Columbia University (1970) PhD: University of California (1991).
Adam Leigland is currently the Director of Public Works for Santa Fe County, New Mexico, where he is responsible for the provision, operation, and maintenance of roads and trails, water and sewer service, solid waste management, public facilities, and parks and open space. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Director of Public Works for a NATO air base in northern Italy, a senior transportation planner at the San Francisco County (California) Transportation Authority, and a civil engineering officer in the U.S. Air Force with service all over the world. He holds a B.S in civil engineering from the University of Notre Dame, and an M.S. in civil engineering and an M.C.P. in city planning, both from the University of California, Berkeley. He is a registered professional engineer in New Mexico, California, and Arizona, and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners.
