 Urbanisation and new urban forms The ongoing overall trend in OECD countries' populations is still a slow but steady incremental increase in urbanisation. However, several emerging patterns might affect this process in the medium term, both quantitatively and qualitatively, and ultimately have an impact on infrastructure needs. One such trend is the notion of "super-urban sprawl" described as the Telecomia by Bohlin et al. After the surge towards suburbia, there is now a movement of populations in OECD countries towards new profiles of residential properties such as low-cost villages and small towns with good amenities or remote large properties in open countryside. This pattern is creating needs for infrastructure (both in situ and networked) and for local services, but it is not likely to have a major impact in the short or medium term because of the dis-utilities and opportunity costs associated with it. Telecomia should not be confused with other population shifts such as the movement towards coastal areas - be they in sunbelt, resort or high-tech cluster locations. This trend is driven by high-tech workers' preferences but also by retirees and telecommuters, who create real needs for additional capacity in infrastructure. Although these needs often occur in high-density areas they are sometimes very costly to satisfy (for instance water in California or European countries because of distant sources, or acceptance of waste disposal plants in the neighbourhood and right of way in the case of power transmission). In the context of cities, four original scenarios towards 2055 were presented by the UK Foresight Directorate as part of the Intelligent Infrastructure Futures project. Although intended to cover the UK situation, the analysis is based on 60 trends and key drivers that are "universal" at least in the case of OECD countries, and therefore they are not only driven by ICT prospects. The discussion of potential impacts and issues here is limited to the 2025 timeline and the principal scenario. INFRASTRUCT