40 trillion dollars will be invested, over the next two decades, in bridging the global deficit in environmental infrastructure, transport, energy, and water. Advanced industrial economies confront aging infrastructure. In developing countries, where infrastructure is scarce, three billion people will be added to cities by 2050, mainly in slums of Africa and Asia, further exacerbating urban environmental degradation.
Professor Shagun Mehrotra’s lecture on February 1, 2012, examined old and new theories of sustainable infrastructure policy and planning. In a lively discussion with the school’s dean, faculty, and students, he offered an alternate approach for institutional reform with a focus on jointly optimizing equity and efficiency.