Transport Infrastructure Interdependencies with Energy, Water, Waste and Communication Infrastructure in the United Kingdom

The role of infrastructure interdependencies is challenging due to the complexity and dynamic environment of all infrastructures and vital for critical infrastructure systems. There is an ongoing debate about the value of the benefits of the five national infrastructure sectors (energy, water, transport, waste and communication) in the UK and how they interact in terms of social, economic and environmental wellbeing (Hall et al., 2016, p.10; iBUILD, 2015; Liveable Cities, 2015; National Infrastructure Plan, 2013). This study focuses only on one of the three aforementioned values, the economic value. The hypothesis tested is whether the transport sector is economically complemented by the energy, water and waste sectors and economically substituted by the communication sector. The authors use the process analysis “networks and cohorts”, an analysis that uses tables, diagrams, models and networks of interactions along with organizational linkages (Hill, 1993). Of interest for this study in particular is the grand total of all revenues (capital value) which create incomes into other sectors and creates dependencies. This, by definition, is the Gross Value Added. The last five symmetric (product by product) Input-Output tables of gross value added are used: 2010, 2005, 1995, 1990 and 1984 (Office for National Statistics, 2015). The theory underpinning the hypothesis was verified and one mathematical equation was developed based on the historical data of the gross value added by the value created in millions of pounds (£m) from the other critical sectors to transport.