page_title: Soft infrastructure
section_title: Cultural, sports and recreational
hierarchical_section_title: Soft infrastructure / Cultural, sports and recreational
caption_attribution_description: English: This is the present-day image from the Then and Now comparison Picture of the Week: From Antu to Yepun — The construction of the VLT
context_page_description: Soft infrastructure is all the services which are required to maintain the economic, health, and cultural and social standards of a population, as opposed to the hard infrastructure is the physical infrastructure of roads, bridges etc. It includes both physical assets such as highly specialised buildings and equipment, as well as non-physical assets, such as communication, the body of rules and regulations governing the various systems, the financing of these systems, the systems and organisations by which professionals are trained, advance in their careers by acquiring experience, and are disciplined if required by professional associations. It includes institutions such as the financial system, the education system, the health care system, the system of government, and law enforcement, and emergency services.
  The essence of soft infrastructure is the delivery of specialised services to people. Unlike much of the service sector of the economy, the delivery of those services depends on highly developed systems and large specialised facilities, fleets of specialised vehicles or institutions.
context_section_description: Sports and recreational infrastructure, such as parks, sports facilities, the system of sports leagues and associations
  Cultural infrastructure, such as concert halls, museums, libraries, theatres, studios (film studios and recording studios), and specialised training facilities
  Business travel and tourism infrastructure, including both man-made and natural attractions, convention centres, hotels, restaurants, amusement parks, and other services that cater mainly to tourists and business travellers, as well as the systems for informing and attracting tourists, and travel insurance
caption: Very Large Telescope.[4]
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "This is the present-day image from the Then and Now comparison Picture of the Week:\u00a0From Antu to Yepun \u2014 The construction of the VLT", "Image Artist": "Hans Hermann Heyer", "Image Copyright": "ESO"}