An Information Systems for Infrastructure Asset Management Tailored to Portuguese Water Utilities: Platform Conceptualization and A Prototype Demonstration

Abstract

This paper presents a new information technology platform specially tailored for infrastructure asset management of urban water systems operated by water utilities of lower digital maturity level, developed in the scope of DECIdE research project. This platform aims at the integration of different data from the water utilities with several information systems and the assessment of the system performance, in terms of water losses, energy efficiency and quality of service by using developed tools (i.e., water and energy balances and key performance indicators). This platform was tested with data from five small to medium size Portuguese water utilities with different maturity levels in terms of technological and human resources. Obtained results are very promising since the platform allows to assess the systems performance periodically which constitute an important part of the infrastructure asset management for small and medium-sized water utilities

Computational Tools for Supporting the Operation and Management of Water Distribution Systems towards Digital Transformation

“…Figure 1 shows a screenshot of the window of the data integration module in the DECIdE platform, specifically the measurement importation module, whilst Figure 2 shows a screenshot of a result window of the water balance. More detailed information about this platform can be found in Carriço et al's work [7]. Note that this platform is developed in Portuguese, thus translated versions are presented herein.…”

“…Independently of the type of metering used, data are periodically collected and should provide good knowledge about water distribution systems (WDS). The fact is that big and disorganized data are generated daily and stored in dispersed information systems (IS), which turns the operation and management of WDS into a challenging and backbreaking task [7]. Many IS used by the utilities were reactively acquired to answer specific needs.…”