210 Types of Infrastructure

John Spacey, updated on August 11, 2024

Infrastructure are basic facilities, structures, equipment, systems and services that act as the foundation for economic activity and quality of life. This includes hard infrastructure such as bridges and soft infrastructure such as hospitals. The following are common types of infrastructure.

Transportation Infrastructure

Systems and facilities for the movement of people and goods. This includes everything from a sidewalk to an airport. People usually think of transportation infrastructure as being a classic example of hard infrastructure and this is true. However, transportation also requires soft infrastructure such as air traffic control or policing services for roads.

Economic Infrastructure

Systems, services and institutions that are critical to the global economy or the economy of a nation, region or city. This includes financial infrastructure such as banks and markets. Government regulations of markets are also key parts of infrastructure whereby you couldn't have efficient capitalist markets without someone enforcing rules in areas such as anti-competitive practices.

Digital Infrastructure

The computers, networks, platforms and systems upon which all other technology is built. This can includes things that aren't obvious to end users that are nonetheless critical to society such as an operating system installed on billions of devices or an API widely used by countless applications and systems.

Social Infrastructure

A broad category of infrastructure that includes anything that makes life better for a society in areas such as medical services, education, safety, security, justice and culture. This should not be confused with soft infrastructure as social infrastructure can be hard or soft. For example, a hospital is hard infrastructure but a service such as an emergency room is soft infrastructure.

City Infrastructure

Infrastructure for improving life in a place such as a city, neighborhood or town. This can be contrasted with infrastructure that has regional, national or global benefits. City infrastructure is an intensive area of investment because people are willing to pour resources into things that directly improve local quality of life, economic conditions and property values.

Water Infrastructure

Services and structures related to water including coastal protection, stormwater management and the use of water for cities, industry and agriculture. Water is critical to human thriving such that water infrastructure such as irrigation channels, canals and aqueducts are amongst the earliest forms of infrastructure developed by ancient civilizations.

Natural Infrastructure

It is perfectly valid to view natural ecosystems and places as infrastructure because they typically provide services necessary to life on the planet or that improve quality of life. For example, a forest is essentially infrastructure if it provides some service such as mitigating an urban heat island. It is also common to install infrastructure into natural things with environmental engineering to improve, stabilize or make them more useful to humans.

Energy Infrastructure

Infrastructure for producing and distributing energy. Modern energy infrastructure is increasingly based on electrical power generation and distribution that include relatively new technologies such as solar. Note: this section is not included in the summary image at the top of this page.