Water Main Criticality Scoring and GIS Centric Risk Mitigation: Applying GIS Spatial Analysis Tools and Apps for Greater Insight for High Risk Underground Infrastructure

With the pressure to provide excellent services under constrained budgets, utilities are adopting asset management as the synergistic framework combining strategic and financial planning, levels of service, and risk-based analysis to determine investments. GIS (geographic information system) helps to empower a utility with the tools to drive a robust and strategic, decision making process. When a CMMS (computerized maintenance management system) has asset management functionality, the capabilities of service requests, inspections and work orders, capturing costs, and work history can be leveraged into asset condition and risk-based spatial analysis by determining what, when, why, and where the next round of investment should occur. A critical step in the process includes analyzing the data and location to potential take actions to reduce the risks. In alignment with ISO (International Standards Organization) 55000, risk is defined as the probability of failure (PoF) multiplied by the consequence of failure (CoF) which produces the business risk exposure (BRE). While calculating risk is important, the risk-based data can be used to build business cases and determine future projects. GIS can help users gain an understanding of what assets are high risk, where they are located and what factor can influence the risk. Risk-based analysis provides the reasoning for potential solutions and action. This paper defines and explores the use of GIS-centric analysis tools to enhance the asset management decision making process.