The infrastructure transition canvas: A tool for strategic urban infrastructure planning

Abstract

Increasing pressures resulting from global environmental and societal changes urge cities to adapt their infrastructures. Strategic planning in local governments and utilities has to anticipate these challenges and translate them into innovation and investment strategies. In this setting, a multitude of actors, their interests, and value orientations have to be considered in decision-making. Else, innovation projects are likely to meet resistance and fail. We outline how business model thinking can help navigate the roles and interests of a variety of stakeholders in nature-based infrastructure implementation. This leads to proposing the tool of 'Infrastructure Transition Canvas' (ITC), which draws on insights from business model innovation, and its recent uptake by transition scholars. Potential benefits of applying the ITC are illustrated by the case of urban stormwater management in Germany. We discuss how the ITC may support complex investment decisions, and pave the way to sustainable urban infrastructure transitions.