Download or read book Cities and Their Vital Systems written by Advisory Committee on Technology and Society and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1988-02-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cities and Their Vital Systems asks basic questions about the longevity, utility, and nature of urban infrastructures; analyzes how they grow, interact, and change; and asks how, when, and at what cost they should be replaced. Among the topics discussed are problems arising from increasing air travel and airport congestion; the adequacy of water supplies and waste treatment; the impact of new technologies on construction; urban real estate values; and the field of "telematics," the combination of computers and telecommunications that makes money machines and national newspapers possible.