Monitoring Infrastructure Capacity

Abstract

This paper examines the issues around monitoring of the capacity of public sector infrastructure to absorb land development.This paper first introduces Montgomery County¹s growth management system. It then offers two theories to justify monitoring infrastructure utilization for the purposes of establishing development capacity. The first, drawn from ecology is based on the notion of environmental carrying capacity. The second, from economics, employs the notion of externalities. However, neither of these directly translates to policy. The pragmatic position of establishing measures of effectiveness is then raised. These indicators must be situated within a decision framework. Because of the local and unique nature of projects, general rules will fail to provide efficient solutions. Thus, a more holistic evaluation framework is called for. Finally, some uses of the infrastructure capacity data in the context of land development are presented, with a focus on linking the financing of infrastructure with development approvals.