ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relations between regional strategies and the management of utility and infrastructure networks. It explores the linkages between the multiple constructions of a regional future and the style of utility network that would underpin these views of the future. The chapter discusses a conceptual overview of the changing relations and questions raised by the development of regions, and infrastructure. It looks at the re-configurations to infrastructure networks, such as energy and water utilities, embedded in three regional strategies. The chapter highlights how each viewpoint shapes the development of complex socio-technical infrastructure networks along different development trajectories. It explains the viewpoints illustrating the development of multiple levels of infrastructure re-ordering, and points to the absence of a context for bringing the different approaches together within a region. The first set of issues focuses on the increased vulnerability of infrastructure networks in the context of climate change.
