Deloitte Access Economics has been engaged by Infrastructure Victoria to prepare a report that provides an information base outlining Victoria’s strategic context. This report covers both the current state and a selection of possible future states of Victoria’s society, economy and environment (streams), and discusses the drivers of infrastructure demand for each stream. This will support Infrastructure Victoria’s public consultation for the development of its 30 year Infrastructure Strategy for Victoria.

The streams are interdependent with a number of themes (or mega trends) of key importance across all streams: population growth, climate change, ageing population and the global economy. The interdependencies necessitate a systems thinking approach to infrastructure planning to be mindful of unintended consequences or benefits. Our report teases out those interdependencies.

The implications of these mega-trends for both infrastructure demand and provision will also critically depend on how we utilise technology and how we design our cities. Hence, this report includes considerable discussion of the role of technology and urban form.