Small And Big Infrastructure: A Community-Planning Theory Of Increments And Interoperability

With urbanization, cities face extreme challenges of infrastructure development. Approaches emphasizing the scale economies of Large Technical Systems (LTS) often overlook the importance of Small-Scale Providers (SSP). This paper reviews the literature on formal and informal SSPs of water, and develops a theory for how they relate to LTSs, focusing on cycles of urban demand and changing household expenditures. This proposed theory of integrated small- and large-scale infrastructures describes an "interoperability" of hybrid systems at the urban and spatial level. Graphs presenting these proposed relationships can be tested empirically and improve public investment and management of urban water supplies.