Water Asset Management Research Articles

Multi-criteria decision analysis in urban water asset management

ABSTRACT This paper presents a multi-criteria decision support methodology for selection and prioritization of rehabilitation intervention in urban water infrastructures considering performance, cost and risk and a long-term perspective. This methodology is divided into three main stages: problem identification, structuring and evaluation. Problem structuring, a crucial stage for the outcomes, includes identifying objectives, selecting scenarios within the analysis period, defining problem options and the problematic type. Problem evaluation includes the selection of assessment metrics, selection of the aggregation method, application of the method and sensitivity and robustness analysis and final recommendations. The methodology is applied to a real case study of a water distribution system, being the different stages presented in detail and obtained results discussed.

The Drought Resilience Impact Platform (DRIP): Improving Water Security Through Actionable Water Management Insights

Millions of people living in the drought prone Horn of Africa face an increasing threat from a lack of safe, reliable and affordable water year-round as droughts become more severe and frequent. Drought emergencies emerge when reduced rainfall conspires with limited community water service capacity to cause dramatic reductions in access to water for people, livestock and agriculture. Drought-driven humanitarian emergencies can be prevented if groundwater is reliably made available at strategic locations during cycles of water stress. DRIP - The Drought Resilience Impact Platform, is an initiative combining early detection and planning with proactive groundwater management to ensure water availability, thus enabling drought-prone communities to become effective managers in the prevention of these humanitarian crises. It replaces reactive and expensive short-term assistance measures, like water trucking, with a framework for drought resilience. DRIP links in-situ sensors deployed in East Africa with remote sensing data to improve estimates for rainfall and groundwater availability, and will develop a localized model for water demand forecasting. These indicators support the operation and maintenance of strategically selected groundwater borehole systems, thereby helping to support water delivery during dry and drought seasons. DRIP can be used to support pay-for-performance contracting, ensuring that water asset management is incentivized. DRIP is presently monitoring the water supplies of about 3 million people in East Africa. This paper presents DRIP's current web-based functionality, which uses several custom and commercial tools, and DRIP's applications, including rainfall-adjusted indicators of water pump functionality in Kenya and Ethiopia. Future work includes experimental and statistical characterization of the impact of these capabilities on water security, and the development of forecasting capabilities. This work is supported NASA, USAID, and the National Science Foundation. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of the United States Agency for International Development or the United States Government.

Statistical modelling of pipe inventory at national level to improve French public policies for sustainable drinking water asset management

À la demande du ministère français de la Transition écologique et solidaire (MTES) et de l’Agence française pour la biodiversité (AFB) pour contribuer à la conduite des politiques publiques de l’eau, l’Institut national de recherche pour l’agriculture, l’alimentation et l’environnement (Inrae) a mené une étude pour mettre en place un dispositif national de connaissance du patrimoine des réseaux d’eau potable à l’échelle des agences de l’eau. La méthode mise en oeuvre repose sur la construction de modèles statistiques qui relient les caractéristiques des réseaux, collectées pour un échantillon de services, à des données géographiques et démographiques disponibles à l’échelle communale de façon exhaustive sur le territoire français. La base de données Sispea (Système d’information des services publics d’eau et d’assainissement) et les données SIG (système d’information géographique) recueillies auprès d’un échantillon de services qui représentent environ la moitié du réseau français, ont été utilisées pour caler des modèles multilinéaires des longueurs de canalisation par diamètre, période de pose et matériau. Ils permettent d’estimer la longueur des canalisations d’eau potable de la France métropolitaine à 875000 km, dont moins de 40% ont été posées avant 1970. 70% des conduites sont d’un diamètre au plus égal à 100 mm et les canalisations en PVC sont très majoritaires dans les bassins Loire-Bretagne et Adour-Garonne tandis que celles en fonte dominent dans les autres bassins.

Machine Learning in Dam Water Research: An Overview of Applications and Approaches

Dam plays a crucial role in water security. A sustainable dam intends to balance a range of resources involves within a dam operation. Among the factors to maintain sustainability is to maintain and manage the water assets in dams. Water asset management in dams includes a process to ensure the planned maintenance can be conducted and assets such as pipes, pumps and motors can be mended, substituted, or upgraded when needed within the allocated budgetary. Nowadays, most water asset management systems collect and process data for data analysis and decision-making. Machine learning (ML) is an emerging concept applied to fulfill the requirement in engineering applications such as dam water researches. ML can analyze vast volumes of data and through an ML model built from algorithms, ML can learn, recognize and produce accurate results and analysis. The result brings meaningful insights for water asset management specifically to strategize the optimal solution based on the forecast or prediction. For example, a preventive maintenance for replacing water assets according to the prediction from the ML model. We will discuss the approaches of machine learning in recent dam water research and review the emerging issues to manage water assets in dams in this paper.

Rural water asset management practices in Ghana: the gaps and needs

AbstractThis study evaluates primary and secondary data from two districts to assess the status of asset management practices, and to examine requirements for improved asset management. Asset inventory data shows that asset management practices in the districts are currently poor, leading to high rates of nonfunctionality and low service levels. The existing ‘fix on failure’ approach to water systems’ repair has become a common practice. However, many repairs which relied on ‘fix on failure’ were found to have delayed, often due to the length of time it takes to mobilise financial resources from ‘post‐paid’ water users. This paper contends that without an improved asset maintenance, system it is likely that rural water systems in Ghana will continue to provide unsustainable services. The Findings demonstrate that improving the current asset management practices is dependent on human and financial resources, access to timely water service monitoring data at district levels, and planning and budgeting regime to reflect life cycle costs of water systems.

Asset management system for business management of water suppliers

Many water suppliers in Japan are required to renew aged waterworks facilities systematically in spite of the decline in revenues due to the decrease in the population. Moreover, they are needed to build waterworks facilities with high earthquake resistance. Therefore, it is necessary for water suppliers to manage waterworks effectively and efficiently in order to build sustainable waterworks. In this paper, to support sound business management, a method of water asset management is arranged systematically. And also an actual example with this systematic method in a water supplier is introduced in which reduction of renewal costs by optimization of ability of the waterworks facilities and setting renewal cycle standards is explained. Furthermore, a perspective of renewal costs taking into account the acceleration of earthquake-resistance strengthening plan and equalization of renewal demands is shown.

Rural water supply system debugging, servicing and refurbishing

Many community water supply systems in Nepal are suffering from non-functionality. For various reasons, the communities responsible are unable to manage their water assets. External support is needed to improve water asset management. The required external supports were analyzed based on the life cycle curve. Subsequently a new management concept of debugging, servicing and refurbishing of the rural water supply system has been proposed. Debugging decreases the duration of the burn in period, servicing increases the useful life period and refurbishment revitalizes the system at the end of its design life.

Renewal prioritization of multi-regional water supply pipelines through water supply risk assessment

In the Republic of Korea, multi-regional water supply pipelines were intensively laid during the rapid economic growth period; however, these pipelines are now aging. The cost of renewal of the aged pipelines would be enormous. Therefore, limited resources need to be distributed effectively in accordance with the priority of renewal. In this study, the risks involved in the multi-regional water supply pipeline of region K were calculated and assessed for setting the priority of renewal. The probability of failure of the pipeline was calculated through a quantification theory, and the effects of failure on the water supply pipeline were calculated by interpreting a pressure driven analysis. The risk considering the probability and consequence of failure comprehensively was found to be the largest at section A12. Three alternatives were considered for risk reduction, and the effect of each alternative on the risk reduction was analyzed. As a result, the construction of double piping by laying a new pipeline was found to be the most effective measure for risk reduction. The results of this study can be utilized as the basic data for establishing an investment plan for the renewal of the water supply pipeline and asset management plan.

Addressing Challenges in Integrated Water Resources, Watershed Planning and Asset Management in Developing Sustainable Solutions for Streams in Urban Watersheds

Addressing Challenges in Integrated Water Resources, Watershed Planning and Asset Management in Developing Sustainable Solutions for Streams in Urban Watersheds

A framework for considering externalities in urban water asset management

Urban communities rely on a complex network of infrastructure assets to connect them to water resources. There is considerable capital investment required to maintain, upgrade and extend this infrastructure. As the remit of a water utility is broader than just financial considerations, infrastructure investment decisions must be made in light of environmental and societal issues. One way of facilitating this is to integrate consideration of externalities into decision making processes. This paper considers the concept of externalities from an asset management perspective. A case study is provided to show the practical implications to a water utility and asset managers. A framework for the inclusion of externalities in asset management decision making is also presented. The potential for application of the framework is highlighted through a brief consideration of its key elements.

Performance Evaluation of Water Asset Management in China

Based on the analysis of water asset management performance indicators, this paper proposes a performance model evaluation of water asset management that based on entropy theory and empirical study of one of the Reservoirs as an example to indicate that the model method is feasible.

Optimization Allocation of Microgrid Capacity Based on Chaotic Multiobjective Quantum Genetic Algorithm

Based on the analysis of water asset management performance indicators, this paper proposes a performance model evaluation of water asset management that based on entropy theory and empirical study of one of the Reservoirs as an example to indicate that the model method is feasible.

A reactive control strategy for networked hydrographical system management

A reactive control strategy is proposed to improve the water asset management of complex hydrographical systems. This strategy requires the definition of rules to achieve a generic resource allocation and setpoint assignment. A modelling method of the complex hydrographical network based on a weighted digraph of instrumented points is also presented. The simulation results of the strategy applied to a hydrographical system composed of one confluent and two diffluents show its efficiency and its effectiveness.

Addressing practical problems in sustainability assessment frameworks

It is widely accepted that complex decisions resulting in more sustainable outcomes require integration between different professional domains as well as those making and those affected by the decisions (stakeholders, actors). In practice, a lack of adequate knowledge-sharing across domains leads to consideration only of tried and tested practices and an over-reliance on monetary evaluations to determine ‘appropriate’ solutions. Furthermore, stakeholder and actor engagement is often inadequate due to the failure of decision makers to connect to the reality of the problem being addressed from the point of view of those affected by it or by wider considerations. Many assessment frameworks have been developed in order to enhance the explicit incorporation of sustainability into decision-making processes and to provide a means for stakeholders to contribute their judgement and views to the decision. Such frameworks have been useful in contextualising decision-making processes but have drawbacks in practical application. This paper describes experiences of developing assessment frameworks for water and related asset management decisions, discusses the limitations of their use in practice and draws upon current thinking in the field of sustainable development to suggest improved means of addressing complex problems.

Hybrid Control Accommodation forWater-asset Management of Hydraulic Systems Subjected to Large Operating Conditions

The Hybrid Control Accommodation (HCA) strategy was proposed to improve the water-asset management of hydraulic systems by resource allocation and setpoint assignment. Hydraulic system dynamics are taken into account during the setpoint assignment step which consists in controlling gates for large operating conditions. For hydraulic systems subjected to strong disturbances, transfer delays are variable, thus different operating modes must be considered. A multimodelling method, associated to a selection technique of transfer delay, allowing for the determination of the number of models, is proposed. The simulation results on the first reach of the Neste canal show the effectiveness of the HCA strategy.

MODELLING, RESOURCE ALLOCATION AND SETPOINTS ASSIGNMENT OF COMPLEX HYDROGRAPHIC SYSTEMS

A new strategy based on a supervision and hybrid control accommodation is proposed to improve the water asset management of complex hydraulic systems. This strategy requires the definition of rules to achieve a generic resource allocation and setpoint assignment. A modelling method of the complex hydrographic network based on a weighted digraph of instrumented points, is also presented. The simulation results of the strategy applied to a hydrographic system composed of one confluent and one difluent show its efficiency and its effectiveness.

Technological requirements for water system asset management

Asset management is a broad term and a relatively new paradigm to the water industry. This paper is intended to present an overview of the asset management approach that emerges as a managerial and technical framework for a water utility to effectively manage above and below ground assets. Based upon the lessons learned from some limited practices in the developed countries including UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand, the article is focused on elaborating the new concept of asset management and technological requirements to implement it for a water or wastewater organization. Following the brief overview, the elements of asset management are addressed along with the classified essential technology that enables water asset management and the potential cost savings resulting from an effective program. It concludes by looking into the challenges and barriers for adopting this innovative approach.

Supervision and hybrid control accommodation for water asset management

The paper presents a supervision and hybrid control accommodation strategy applied to the online water asset management of a canal. This strategy is organized in a conceptual framework based on two principal operating modules. The discharge supervision module carries out the monitoring of discrepancies between the expected and measured values and makes the resource state diagnosis. The hybrid control accommodation module allows the setpoint calculation to be given according to the detected discrepancies, the resource state and the time delays. The design method of a water asset management of a canal network is presented and the strategy performance is evaluated in presence of the usual disturbances of a canal showing its effectiveness.

HYBRID CONTROL ACCOMMODATION FOR WATER-ASSET MANAGEMENT OF HYDRAULIC SYSTEMS SUBJECTED TO LARGE OPERATING CONDITIONS

The Hybrid Control Accommodation (HCA) strategy was proposed to improve the water asset management of hydraulic systems by resource allocation and setpoint assignment. Hydraulic system dynamics are taking into account during the setpoint assignment step which consists in controlling gates for larges operating conditions. For hydraulic systems subjected to strong disturbances, transfer delays are variable, thus different operating modes must be considered. A multimodelling method associated with a transfer delay selection technique allowing for the determination of the number of models, is proposed. The simulation results on the first reach of the Neste canal show the effectiveness of the HCA strategy.

Bayesian updating for binary variables: an application in the UK water industry

Summary. In accordance with the regulation of the privatized English and Welsh water industry, water companies are required to submit an asset management plan every few years. A requirement of South West Water's asset management planning is to state the probability that some of its assets will need refurbishment or replacement within the following 5 years. Probability assessments are elicited for the company's assets based on information of varying quality. For the formulation and updating of beliefs we propose and employ the threshold model, a Bayesian updating procedure. The model's main aspect is Jeffrey's conditionalization. This is an updating rule based on a simple conditional independence assumption. According to this rule, it is not necessary to construct a fully specified joint density for the quantities of interest and the probability assessments.