Now, as part of my job, I get to dive into countless books, and I must say, this one is an absolute delight. No need for any unnecessary delay, let me give you a sneak peek into what makes it so worthwhile. Are you ready? Let's jump right in with the introduction!.Welcome to Fundamentals of Infrastructure Management! This book emerged from our shared experiences as co-teachers of the 'Infrastructure Management' course at Carnegie Mellon University over the past decade. Today, we are thrilled to provide this book to the community of infrastructure management educators, practitioners, students, and researchers under a Creative Commons license.While we believe that the material contained in this book could attract commercial publishers, we have chosen to make it freely available. Our intention is to expand the reach and impact of the content, fostering improvements in the practice of infrastructure management. By "free of charge," we mean that the material can be obtained without cost, but we encourage readers to invest their time and effort in mastering its concepts. To aid in your learning journey, we have included problem assignments throughout the chapters and strongly encourage you to engage with them.For educational purposes, we permit reproduction of this work with appropriate citation. You can refer to this book as follows: Coffelt, Donald and Chris Hendrickson. Fundamentals of Infrastructure Management. 2017. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. https://doi.org/10.1184/R1/5334379.v1Your feedback and suggestions are invaluable to us. If you find this work helpful or have ideas for additions or corrections, please reach out to either of the authors: Don Coffelt (dcoffelt@andrew.cmu.edu) or Chris Hendrickson (cth@cmu.edu). We plan to periodically update the book, although our focus remains on the timeless fundamental concepts. In this third edition, we have expanded the content to include topics such as Service Life, Sensor-Based Condition Assessment, Demand Management, Climate Change, and Capital Project Prioritization.Throughout our teaching, we have strived to prepare students for careers in infrastructure management. We firmly believe that this field offers an attractive and fulfilling professional path. As an illustration of the career opportunities in infrastructure management, Don currently serves as the Associate Vice- President for Facilities Management and Campus Services at Carnegie Mellon University. In this role, he oversees a diverse team of nearly 400 personnel responsible for managing the university's 150-acre campus, encompassing 7 million square feet of buildings, along with transportation and utility distribution systems.