Toward sustainable neighbourhoods: the need to consider infrastructure interactions

This paper details the role of infrastructure in promoting sustainability at the neighbourhood scale. A sustainable neighbourhood design process is outlined and the importance of adopting a systems perspective and considering infrastructure interconnections is emphasized. The performance of local infrastructure systems (e.g., buildings and local transportation network) is influenced by interactions with the greater urban region and with other local infrastructure. Through a broad review of the literature on transportation, water, building, and urban forestry systems, this paper identifies many of these extra- and inter-neighbourhood interactions. The paper concludes that it is difficult to achieve neighbourhood sustainability objectives without infrastructure systems at the urban scale that support these micro-scale goals. Furthermore, interactions between local infrastructure systems can have a positive or negative impact on infrastructure performance and environmental impacts. Careful consideration of these relationships during neighbourhood design could yield significant improvements in infrastructure resource efficiency as well as reductions in pollutant emissions and overall costs.