Infrastructure systems serving modern economies are highly complex, highly interconnected, and often highly
interactive. The result is increased complexity in investment decision-making, and increased challenges in prioritising
that investment. However, this prioritisation is vital to developing a long-term, sound, robust and achievable pipeline
of national infrastructure.
One key to effective, objective and prudent investment prioritisation is understanding the real performance of
infrastructure. Many metrics are employed to this end, and many are imposed by governments or regulators, but
often these metrics relate only to inputs or outputs in a production process. Whilst these metrics may be useful for
delivery agencies, they largely fail to address the real expectations or requirements of infrastructure users — quality of
service, safety, reliability, and resilience.
What is required is a set of metrics which address not outputs but outcomes — that is, how well does the
infrastructure network meet service needs? This paper reports on a study undertaken at a national level, to identify
service needs across a range of infrastructure sectors, to assess service performance metrics in use, and to show
how they or other suitable metrics can be used to prioritise investment decisions across sectors and jurisdictions
