Moving urban water infrastructure asset management from science into practice

Abstract

iGPI, the National Initiative for Infrastructure Asset Management is a Portuguese collaborative project led by LNEC (National Civil Engineering Laboratory, Portugal) through which 19 water utilities develop their own infrastructure asset management (IAM) systems and plans in a joint training and capacitation programme. Technical assistance to the participating utilities is ensured by LNEC, IST (Technical University of Lisbon) and Addition, a software development company. The water utilities get collective as well as one-on-one support and specific training. They benefit from networking with the other utilities in a common and simultaneous process, with similar difficulties and challenges, leading to an effective sharing of solutions. The developed products, including training materials, templates and guidelines for developing strategic and tactical IAM plans, are available to the general public. This project has greatly contributed to the establishment of reference methodologies and standards for IAM planning, in a range of utilities of widely diverse size and context, effectively defining an accepted best practice. This paper discusses the project's format and its advantages, and goes on to describe the main outcomes, including selected cases and final products.Keywords: urban water services; infrastructure asset management; collaborative project; strategic planning; tactical planning CASE 1 LargeFeatures: utility is the result of the recent merger of 10 municipal water and wastewater services; very diverse contexts, challenges, and data availability and quality among the municipalities; certified BSC management system; GIS available, but reflecting the disparity in information availability, depth and quality among the municipalities. † iGPI was seen by the utility as a golden opportunity to help establish sound organizational processes. † One of the challenges for this utility was to prioritize the municipalities with higher rehabilitation needs, in a sound, transparent and accountable way, in a context of local political sensitiveness where consensus-driven negotiation is crucial. The results from iGPI helped respond to this challenge, particularly through a sound IAM metrics system. † The existing BSC implementation did not address the long-term effect of the managerial decisions. Although changes are more difficult to implement given the size and complexity of the organization, several new metrics have been included and a transition process has been devised towards a fully satisfactory BSC implementation. † iGPI also gave rise to multiple new data collection procedures, particularly related to GIS, work orders, and harmonization among information systems. CASE 2 MidsizeFeatures: technologically developed utility; well-trained human resources available; good inventory; full coverage, reliable GIS; good monitoring systems; hydraulic models available for the entire water supply system. † The availability of a large amount of information, mostly reliable, including all-mains calibrated hydraulic models for the e...

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