Infrastructure Systems in Sustainability and Regional Development

In this study, the relationship of infrastructure systems which enable the relations, service and information flows of individuals, communities and institutions with sustainability is discussed. Infrastructure systems are initially evaluated in single component basis, then, being discussed in an integrated way at urban and regional levels covering the mutual impacts of environment, economy and society as the three pillars of sustainability. The use of renewable resources, shifting to smart grid, distributed networks, recycling and reuse practices started to have crucial impacts on efficiency and sustainability in infrastructure. The approach that consider infrastructure as a facilitator in socio-economic growth besides being a physical service provision activity is gaining importance recently with the accelerating globalization and developing communication and information technologies. In respect to that, policies based on sustainability, governance and flexibility in infrastructure services’ provision contribute to regional development

Importance of SCADA in the prevention of real losses in water distribution networks: a case study ASKİ

İçilebilir su miktarının gittikçe azaldığı dünyamızda, su kayıplarını önleme çalışmalarının ne kadar büyük bir öneme sahip olduğunun anlaşıldığı ve bu konudaki farkındalığın her geçen gün arttığı görülmektedir. Su kayıplarının azaltılması noktasında alınması gereken tüm önlemlerin ivedilikle hayata geçirilmesi gerekmektedir. Ankara Su ve Kanalizasyon İdaresi (ASKİ) Genel Müdürlüğü üzerine düşen sorumluluğun bilincinde olarak fiziki su kayıpları önleme birimini oluşturmuş ve çalışmalar başlatılmıştır. Bu makalede fiziki su kayıpları önleme çalışmalarının Merkezi Kontrol ve Veri Toplama (SCADA) sistemi olmaksızın uygulandığı bir Düzenlenmiş Müşteri Alanı (DMA) bölgesinde, bir yıl ara ile yapılan debi ölçümleri sonucunda minimum gece debisinde meydana gelen artış konu edilmiştir. Sonuç olarak kısa vadede fiziki su kayıplarının önlendiği DMA bölgesinde, basınç yönetimi ve uzaktan izleme yapılmaması durumunda şebekede tekrarlanan kayıpların olduğu sonucuna varılmıştır.In our world, where the amount of potable water is gradually decreasing, it is important to prevent water losses and take relevant measures in this respect. A real water loss prevention unit has been established in Ankara Water and Sewerage Administration (ASKİ). In this article, real water loss prevention studies were performed without Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, and it was observed that an increase in minimum night flow was observed when working again in the same District Metering Area (DMA) region one year later. As a result, water losses are observed to continue in the DMA region, although the losses were prevented in the short term

Joint Costs in Electricity and Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructures: The Role of Urban Factors

This paper analyzes the joint cost structure of electricity and natural gas distribution investments. Assessing the joint costs is critical for urban development and public policy regarding competition at the local level. The paper accounts for the urban and geographic factors at the local level, while the previous literature primarily used company-level data with a few or no site-specific variables in joint cost analyses. An empirical analysis of the multi-utility capital costs suggests that the local urban and geographic conditions affect such costs, with economies of scope present in electricity and natural gas both in terms of total costs and underground investment costs. Hence, the joint service provision makes economic and environmental sense for urban policy makers.</p

Technology reshaping the geography: high speed train in Turkey

Technological improvements reshape the geography and reorganize social interactions. Infrastructure investments fueled by new technologies have changed time and space perceptions, while having a considerable impact on development, livability, and democratization of societies. Transportation 176 developments bring about the most tangible interventions on spatial organizations and physical interactions. Starting from micro-level daily commuting, to macro-level international transport, increased accessibility in terms of travel times and affordability has led to the re-conceptualizations of real and virtual spaces. At this stage, traditional representations remained incompetent to conceptualize the virtual geographical shrinking, increased mobility, intensified interactions, and more integrated spaces introduced by new technologies. Alternative representations have been developed to overcome the issue. Time-space mapping is one of the alternatives, which uses time-distance instead of space-distance, to represent proximity of nodes in a more accurate way. Turkey has been experiencing geographical restructuring due to the recent investments on high speed train (HST), which altered the faith of intra-national transportation pattern and inter-urban proximities. Historically, rail transportation fell behind the car-based transportation in the country. Most of the railways date back to the late Ottoman Empire and the early Republican eras (from 1850s to 1940s). Investments on rail systems have remained almost insignificant after the 1940s, whereas most of the transportation investments targeted construction of highways. Increasing oil prices, environmental and safety issues, and travel time and cost concerns have led to the revival of rail systems in national transportation recently. Initially, two HST lines were put into operation in 2012 connecting two cities –Ankara and Eskisehir–. New investments were made in the past five years and today HST connects eleven urban nodes at the Central and the North-Western parts of Turkey, while additional HST lines are on the way. Travel times have been reduced almost by half, and the numbers of trips have increased in a significant way among the nodes which resulted in shrinking of space in the Central and the North-Western parts of the country. Increased mobility has not only affected travel patterns, but also enhanced social, economic and cultural interactions, which changed the role of node cities. Eskisehir and Konya, for instance, became national touristic attraction points due to improved accessibility, although both are landlocked medium-size cities in central Anatolia. This study aims to map the new time-distances in Turkey introduced by HST, using conventional train and HST data. Taking a node (a city) as the origin, the coordinates of all other nodes are calculated iteratively using travel times. Headways are also considered in calculations as a distortion factor, which is expected to have an impact on the number of trips, accordingly, on time-space proximity. After determining the new coordinates of each node, the time-space map is georeferenced, using Geographical Information Systems. Finally, a critical discussion of the impacts of HST is provided to reveal the social, economic and cultural changes that were experienced at the nodes (cities) before and after the HST investments