Hard infrastructure, also known as tangible or built infrastructure, is the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges, tunnels, railways, ports, and harbors, among others, as opposed to the soft infrastructure or "intangible infrastructure of human capital in the form of education, research, health and social services and "institutional infrastructure" in the form of legal, economic and social systems.[1][2]
This article delineates both the capital goods, or fixed assets, and the control systems, software required to operate, manage and monitor the systems, as well as any accessory buildings, plants, or vehicles that are an essential part of the system. Also included are fleets of vehicles operating according to schedules such as public transit buses and garbage collection, as well as basic energy or communications facilities that are not usually part of a physical network, such as oil refineries, radio, and television broadcasting facilities.
- ^ Picot, A., Florio, M., Grove, N., & Kranz, J. (2015). Public infrastructure provisioning: foundations and challenges. The Economics of Infrastructure Provisioning. The Changing Role of the State. Picot, et al. Infrastructure can be differentiated into tangible, intangible, and institutional infrastructure, citing Witte 2002 and Klodt 2009.
- ^ "The Difference Between Soft And Hard Infrastructure, And Why It Matters". StateImpact New Hampshire. Retrieved 29 October 2017.