infrastructurematters: About the Author/title> <meta name="description" content="infrastructurematters.org is an independent website working with politicians and professionals in sub-Saharan Africa to develop sustainable urban infrastructure for the secondary towns"> <meta name="Keywords" content="Africa, urban infrastructure, water supply, water and sanitation, urban roads, urban drainage, sustainable infrastructure, municipal engineering, urban engineering, towns, secondary towns"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"> </head><body style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" bgcolor="#fffff">  <table style="height: 100%;" width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="0"> </table><a name="top"></a> <table width="800px" align="center" bgcolor="#ffffcc" border="3" bordercolor="#c86260" cellpadding="10" cellspacing="5">   <tbody><tr><td valign="top" width="20%" bgcolor="#ffffcc"> <img src="images/IM_logo.jpg" alt="infrastructurematters logo" vspace="" width="157" align="centre" height="105" hspace=""></td>  <td valign="middle" width="80%" bgcolor="#d2d8c7"><font face="Verdana"> <h1><center>Building Sustainable Urban Infrastructure in Africa</center></h1></font></td></tr>  <tr><td colspan="2" align="right" bgcolor="#a9ae9f" height="30"> <table valign="top"" width="40%" align="center" border="2" bordercolor="#777d6a" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="3" frame="hsides" height="50%"> <tbody><tr> <td align="center" bgcolor="#a9ae9f"> <font color="blue" face="Tahoma" size="5">infrastructurematters.org</font> </td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> </tr>  <tr><td valign="top" width="22%" bgcolor="#d2d8c7"> <p style="text-align:center"><font size+"4"><b>Key Topics</b></font></p> <h5> <a href="index.html">Home Page</a><br /> <a href="what_is_infrastructure.html">What is infrastructure</a><br /> <a href="integrated_infrastructure.html">Integrated Infrastructure</a><br /> <a href="financial_management.html">Financial Management</a><br /> <a href="institutional_management.html">Institutional Management</a><br /> <a href="technology_systems.html">Technology Systems</a><br /> <a href="local_economic_development.html">Local Economic Development</a><br /> <a href="/wordpress">Members Forum</a><br /> <a href="green_infrastructure_book_refs.html">References from the Book</a><br /> About the Author<br /> </h5> </td>  <td> <table width="100%" border="0"> <tbody><tr> <td width="25%"> <img src="images/workshop1.jpg" alt="workshop" width="180" border="0" height="135"> </td> <td width="75%"> <p><center><font size="5"><b>About the Author</b></font></center></p> <p><center><b>infrastructurematters.org</b> has been developed, and is managed, by John Abbott (seen here running a workshop in Addis Ababa)</center></p> </td> </tr> </tbody></table>  </td></tr><tr> <td colspan="2" width="100%"> <p>John is a professional civil and municipal engineer who has extensive experience in all aspects of urban/municipal infrastructure maangement. Currently John is the Team Leader on a project in Addis Ababa in Ethiopia, working with the Italian multi-disciplinary firm ARSProgetti and the City Authority of Addis Ababa to build an Integrated Urban Infrastructure Asset Management System for Addis. John is also the author of a new Book on urban development entitled "Green Infrastructure for Sustainable Urban Development in Africa", to be published by Earthscan/Routledge in February 2012. </p> <p> John set up this website because he believes that a strong local government system, with overall management responsibility for the urban/municipal engineering base, is a pre-requisite to the successful development of secondary towns. At this time the opposite is the case, with a fragmented and dysfunctional approach to infrastructure being the norm imposed by external development agencies. In addition, the strong international focus on megacities, which has grown over the past ten years, a focus that has further encouraged a trend towards infrastructure management by sector. Whilst this may be appropriate for very large cities, the infrastructure services of secondary towns require a completely different approach. Here the infrastructure is best managed using an integrated, systemic approach. This concept of integrated infrastructure management is a core philosophy of <b>infrastructure matters</b>. </p> <p> <b>infrastructurematters.org</b> will bring you experience of many facets of urban engineering and development, much of it based on John's experience. Over his career to date, John has worked in local government, consulting, NGOs, and the private sector, and has taught extensively at major universities. In addition to a strong technical background in urban/municipal and water engineering, John co-founded two major development NGOs in South Africa, developed innovative approaches to community participation in infrastructure provision (the topic of his PhD), piloted Cape Town's first integrated informal settlement upgrading project (a field in which he is considered an international expert) and was the first Professor of Urban Engineering at the University of Cape Town, a position that he held for seven years. In addition to running <b>infrastructure matters</b>, John is also a consultant to governments in sub-Saharan Africa.</p> <center><a href="#top">Return to top of page</a></center> </td> </tr>  <tr><td colspan="2" align="center" bgcolor="#d2d8c7" height="20"> <font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"> </font><center> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="index.html">|Home page|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="what_is_infrastructure.html">|What is Infrastructure|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="integrated_infrastructure.html">|Integrated infrastructure|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="financial_management.html">|Financial Management|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="institutional_management.html">|Institutional Management|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="technology_systems.html">|Technology Systems|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="technology_systems.html"><a href="local_economic_development.html">|Local Economic Development|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="/wordpress">|Members Forum|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"><a href="green_infrastructure_book_refs.html">|References from the book|</a></font></nobr> <nobr><font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1">|About the Author|</font></nobr> <br /> <br /> <font face="verdana, arial, helvetica" size="1"> infrastructurematters.org Copyright © John Abbott, 2007-2011<br /> Site last updated: 25/10/2011</font></center></td></tr> </tbody></table> </body></html>