Physical characteristics of pipes as indicators of structural state for decision-making considerations in sewer asset management

Liliana López Kleine,Andres Torres,Nathalie Hernandez

doi:10.15446/ing.investig.v36n3.56616

Liliana López Kleine, Andres Torres + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.15446/ing.investig.v36n3.56616

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Abstract

Sewer deterioration is a problem that affects many cities of the world. This affects the structural state of the sewer systems, as well as its hydraulic capacity and the service level. As a consequence, the sewer system stakeholders are working on the development of a proactive sewer management to make decision in time and avoid public emergencies. Therefore, the objective of this work was to predict the variable state using a clustering algorithm (k-means) in Bogotá’s sewer pipes based on its physical characteristics. Among the most representative results was to find a relationship between pipes’ characteristics and their structural state (chi-squared). Furthermore, the slope and ground level variables were the most related ones to the state of the pipes. The detected relationships are linear and can be used to make management decisions when pipes are clustered and the clusters are mapped on a principal component plane.

Highlights

As a consequence of the growth of cities, urban water systems are exposed to increased pressures in terms of climate change, environmental pollution, limited resources and aging infrastructure (Ferguson et al, 2013)
The Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to resume the structure of the data using linear combinations of the original variables (Lebart et al, 1995). These linear combinations are called Principal Components (PCs), and are obtained by solving an eigenvalue problem which assures that the first PC retains maximum variance of the data (Lebart et al, 1995) and allows a representation of the original data on a lower dimension space
Boxplots were constructed for all variables. They allowed detecting an important number of outliers for the ground level variable, but not for the other variables

Summary

Introduction

As a consequence of the growth of cities, urban water systems are exposed to increased pressures in terms of climate change, environmental pollution, limited resources and aging infrastructure (Ferguson et al, 2013). Drainage systems, which present alarming aging and deterioration rates, are part of the cities’ infrastructure developed over several years (Osman, 2012). As a consequence of their structural deterioration, most of the sewer systems are being every time more prone to fail (Ward & Savic, 2012). This impacts directly on the level of service and quality of life in the communities (Micevski et al, 2002; Osman 2012, Liu & Kleiner, 2013).

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