Introduction to Infrastructure and Demography (InfraDem) -- PART I -- 1. The Setting: Demographic Trends and Economic Development in Germany and Two Selected Regions -- 2. Macroeconomic Conditions for Infrastructure Adaptation to Demographic Change -- 3. Demographically Induced Changes in the Structure of Final Demand and Infrastructure Use -- PART II -- 4. Demographic Effects on Passenger Transport Demand -- 5. The Demand for Air Transport and Consequences for the Airports of Hamburg and Rostock -- 6. Impacts on the National Energy System -- 7. The Potential for District Heating Based on Renewable Energy – A Spatial Analysis -- PART III -- 8. Mobility of the Elderly – Facts and Projections -- 9. On the Energy Demand of Households -- PART IV -- 10. Evaluation of Findings on Sustainability Strategies -- 11. Policy Implications: The Regional Perspective and Beyond -- Index.

Population ageing has been going on for many decades, but population shrinking is a rather new phenomenon. The population of Germany, as in many other countries, has passed a plateau and is currently shrinking. Demographic change is a challenge for infrastructure planning due to the longevity of infrastructure capital and the need to match supply and demand in order to ensure cost-efficiency. This book summarises the findings of the INFRADEM project team, a multidisciplinary research group that worked together to estimate the effects of demographic change on infrastructure demand. Economists, engineers and geographers present studies from top-down and bottom-up perspectives, focusing on Germany and two selected regions: Hamburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The contributors employed a broad range of methods, including an overlapping-generations model for Germany, regional input-output models, an energy systems model, and a spatial model of the transportation infrastructure of the selected regions.