An Enabling Environment for Asset Management through Public Policy: The Benefits of Standardization and Application to the Water Sector

Water services—including urban water supply, wastewater, and stormwater services—are essential to society and critical for protecting human health and the well-being of communities. Goal 6 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) recognizes this importance and aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Despite progress, the UN reports billions of people still lack water and sanitation services. Many governments around the world face the challenge of balancing between investment in new assets, programs, and services and providing the required funding for repair and replacement of existing water assets. This paper argues infrastructure asset management establishes a foundational framework for the system of operations, management, and importantly, governance of assets to deliver services. An enabling environment for asset management, in addition to supporting the delivery of services, also contributes to meeting public policy objectives. The research question is: How can governments utilize public policy to enable asset management and consequently achieve societal objectives. A variety of public policy instruments used to enable infrastructure asset management and support achievement of government goals and objectives, such as the UN SDGs, are outlined and analyzed. The methodology involved a survey and case studies drawn from three countries, focused on the water sector. It also presents outcomes, common elements, and the need for and benefits of standardization.

CoDEC: Connected Data For Road Infrastructure Asset Management

Road infrastructure asset management is rapidly transforming into a digital environment where data accessibility, effective integration and collaboration and accessibility from different sources and assets are key. However, current asset management processes are not yet fully integrated or linked, and there are incompatibilities between various systems and platforms that limit the ability to integrate asset management with BIM. The CoDEC project has sought to understand the current status of information management for assets, including inventory, condition and new data sources such as sensors and scanning systems, to identify the challenges and needs for linking and integrating different data sets to support effective asset management. As a result, CoDEC has developed a data dictionary framework to help link/integrate static and dynamic data for the “key” infrastructure assets (road pavements, bridges, tunnels). This will enable BIM and Asset Management Systems (AMS) to exchange data and help optimise and integrate data management across systems and throughout the different asset lifecycle phases, from build to operation. This work will be followed up with three pilot projects to demonstrate the feasibility of integrating asset data from various sources through linked data/semantic web technology to build the connection between AMS and BIM platforms.

Exploring the Role of Digital Infrastructure Asset Management Tools for Resilient Linear Infrastructure Outcomes in Cities and Towns: A Systematic Literature Review

Linear infrastructure such as roads, railways, bridges and tunnels enable critical functionality within and between metropolitan and regional cities and towns, facilitating the movement of goods and services, as part of vibrant, thriving economies. However, these asset types are typically challenged by costly asset management schedules and continually eroding maintenance and refurbishment budgets. These challenges are compounded by the increasing frequency and intensity of disruptive events such as fire, floods, and storm-surge that can damage or destroy property. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG-9) highlights the urgent need for enabling evidence-based decision making for infrastructure asset management (IAM). Around the world, digital engineering (DE) efforts are underway to streamline the capture, processing, and visualization of data for IAM information requirements, towards timely and evidence-based decision support that enables resilient infrastructure outcomes. However, there is still limited understanding about which IAM information can be digitized and the types of tools that can be used. This study sought to address this knowledge gap, through reviewing the extent of available and emerging linear infrastructure related DE technologies and their IAM information requirements. A systematic literature review elicited 101 relevant conceptual and empirical papers, which were subsequently evaluated with regard to the extent and characteristics of digital infrastructure asset management tools. Findings are discussed using three themes that emerged from the analysis: (1) DE tools and their IAM asset information requirements; (2) Interoperability and integration of DE tools across IAM platforms; and (3) Application of DE tools to enable resilient linear infrastructure outcomes. A ‘Digital Technology Integration Matrix’ is presented as an immediately useful summary for government and industry decision-makers, particularly in the field of disaster management preparedness and recovery. The Matrix communicates the synthesis of tools and likely end-users, to support effective data gathering and processing towards more timely and cost-effective infrastructure asset management. The authors conclude with a research roadmap for academics, including recommendations for future investigation.

Willingness to Pay for Improved Water Supply Services Based on Asset Management: A Contingent Valuation Study in South Korea

The pressure on water infrastructure has increased due to an increase in the number of aging water pipes. Aging pipes are prone to failure, causing significant financial losses and service disruptions. The increasing number of aged pipes and limited budget for pipe rehabilitation or replacement necessitates water infrastructure asset management to ensure sustainable water supply services. In this study, contingent valuation was used to estimate the willingness to pay (WTP) and value improved water supply services through the implementation of asset management. To estimate the WTP at the individual and county levels, we performed a nationwide survey including eight provinces and 24 counties/cities with distinct water supply service performances. At the individual level, the median WTP estimated using the double-bounded dichotomous choice model was 249.50 KRW/month (0.22 USD/month). The results showed that high-level satisfaction of customers with water supply services and positive price perception of water bills resulted in a high WTP. At the county level, decreasing water supply service performances were associated with a low WTP, indicating that proper interventions by local utilities are required to achieve sustainable water supply services. Our results provide a quantitative basis for decision-making in implementation of water infrastructure asset management.