ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews that how infrastructure provision and access may change over the next half-century. It primarily focuses on hard infrastructure, the systems that provide for the movement and distribution of people and goods, energy, water and sanitation, and information. This includes, inter alia, roads, railways, electricity generation plants, transmission lines, dams, canals, irrigation works, water delivery and sanitation systems, and communication networks. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary first defines infrastructure as "the underlying foundation or basic framework". ICT infrastructure can improve the monitoring and control of energy, transportation, and water systems through smart grid applications. Least Developed Countries (LDCs) is a classification system used by the United Nations Economic and Social Council to identify the 50 poorest countries in the world. A number of sector-specific studies also provide quantitative forecasts of some forms of infrastructure. A key example is the World Energy Outlook of the International Energy Agency, which includes forecasts of electricity generation capacity and electricity access.
