Water Utilities and the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Review of Pandemic-Related Research
Publication: Construction Research Congress 2022
ABSTRACT
To reduce the spread of the COVID-19 disease, government mandated social distancing policies (SDPs) halted the operations of non-essential businesses and changed operations at essential businesses, including water utilities. This change was difficult for some utilities to adapt to as the SDPs impacted supply chain and altered workforce management, among other operational aspects. Here, we posit that SDPs have implications for water infrastructure resiliency and technical performance, and may impact the future design, construction, and operation of water infrastructure. However, there is a dearth of literature on this topic. Therefore, we complete a literature review of sources from gray and scholarly literature to understand the impact of pandemics on water infrastructure. We found that the literature focuses on contextualizing COVID-19 within water infrastructure, direct impacts to utilities, and recommendations for immediate and future mitigation. Our research points out a gap in the literature that examines pandemic impacts on specific types of water utilities (e.g., small, rural) and identifies future research opportunities (e.g., relating water utility pandemic impacts to population dynamics). Here, we point out potential water infrastructure resiliency problems that, without intervention, could negatively impact technical system operations and public health.
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Construction Research Congress 2022
Pages: 501 - 511
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Published online: Mar 7, 2022
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