The Balance between Technology and Human Data Acquisition for Condition Assessment Studies for Water and Wastewater Facilities: Have We Reached the Tipping Point?

Have we reached the tipping point of technology gathering data in the field more quickly and accurately than human data acquisition for condition assessments for water and wastewater facilities? This paper will evaluate the state of the art technology in this area in comparison to the capability of human acquisition efforts. CCTV was one of the first entrants into the condition assessment arena followed by ultrasonic equipment, magnetic flux tools, and most recently drone technology. Field data acquisition for water and wastewater facilities has been developing since the 1970s. The major challenge with some of the data acquired by technology was the interpretation of the data. Some early CCTV data was very difficult to interpret. This paper will also look at various technologies and how interpretation of the data has improved over the last four decades. It will also look at human data acquisition and how it has evolved. Have we reached the tipping point where technology-based data acquisition overtakes human data acquisition or is there a balance between the two?