Performance measurement in Australian water utilities. Current state and future directions

Abstract

Ensuring universal and affordable water supply is a central objective of government. An efficient water supply sector plays a primary role in ensuring this objective is met. Scale economies and capital‐intensive immobile assets means monopoly emerges as the dominant organizational form, and when combined with an essential character, a strong case exists for economic and technical regulation. Yet diversity in water service provider scale means economic regulation, which is costly, is not always viable. A comprehensive performance monitoring and reporting regime for water service providers is thus crucial. It is crucial for oversight of unregulated entities, and for regulated entities in generating competition by comparison. In this article, we undertake an expansive literature review and summarize approaches to performance measurement by the water industry. Academic literature reveals researchers have centered their approach using comprehensive methods such as data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis. With the exception of the Victorian Essential Services Commission, the Australian Industry persists with partial indicators. Given water and sewerage price increases of more than 100% in real terms from 2005 to 2014, we find a strong case for implementing advanced methods to address the task of providing a holistic picture of utility performance.

Investigating Evacuation Trends and Restoration Processes from Serious Earthquake Damage in Japan

“…Many studies have been conducted in which the performance of water supply PIs were used to assess the performance of a water supply system in terms of its efficiency and effectiveness. PIs are tools for evaluating the efficiency, effectiveness, and robustness of water supply systems, and they can help decision-makers develop safe and reliable infrastructure strategies based on past and present trends [21] (see also [22] [23] [24]). The PI system in Japan consists of an excessive number of items, and principal component analysis was used to reduce the dimensionality of the original data [25].…”

Su ve Kanalizasyon İdarelerinde Kıyaslamalı Performans Analizi için Web Tabanlı Hesaplama Araçlarının Geliştirilmesi

“…IBNET tarafından önerilen performans göstergelerinin hesaplanması amacıyla geliştirilen bu modülde, hizmet kapsamı (4 gösterge), su üretim ve tüketim verileri (11), gelir getirmeyen su (3), debimetreler (2), sistem performansı (2), işletim maliyeti ve personel durumu (17), hizmet kalitesi (8), faturalar ve tahsilatlar (27) ve finansal performans (5) olmak üzere 9 alt başlıkta toplamda 79 alt gösterge bulunmaktadır. Bu 79 adet performans göstergesinin hesaplanmasında temel olarak 83 adet değişken kullanılmaktadır (Şekil 6).…”

“…Su ve atık su yönetimi için, alt yapı, sosyo-politik ve finansal ana başlıklarında performans göstergeleri bir arada değerlendirilmiştir. Akimov ve Simshauser [11] atık su ve su hizmetlerinin sürdürülebilir ve yönetilebilir bir şekilde gerçekleştirilmesi için, İdareler için kapsamlı performans analiz, değerlendirme ve raporlama sisteminin kurulmasının oldukça kritik ve önemli olduğunu ifade etmiştir. Cetrulo vd.…”

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