The provision of wastewater collection services is used to demonstrate how technological relationships and principles of micro-economics can be used to generate normative cost functions for urban service networks. The study explores both the demand for the service, as measured by parameters of urban development, and the supply of the service, as determined by the basic technology of providing it. A wastewater collection network is first broken down into its basic component: the sewerline or link satisfying a linear demand. A sewerline cost equation is empirically obtained from actual bid information. The concept of optimization is then explored with respect to overall collection networks. Present design methodology and recent developments in both network layout and design are explored. The problem of the optimal choice of a mix of diameters and slopes for a given network, and a specific set of economic and technological inputs, is fitted to a separable convex programming framework, for which a global optimal solution can be obtained using existing commercial computer programs. Following a review of relevant research methodologies and concepts, a 160-acre experimental module is presented as a basis for the development of normative network cost models. (Author)