Optimized Investment Planning for High-Volume Low-Value Buried Infrastructure Assets
Publication: Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 8, Issue 3
Abstract
This paper explores the potential savings that can be realized through the identification of optimal asset management business policies for small-diameter (25–50 mm) water communication pipes, which are installed between the customer’s property boundary and the distribution main. The outputs from a geospatial mapping tool are used alongside a set of calibrated Weibull deterioration curves to drive a whole-life cost and performance analysis. Against this improved understanding of whole-life costs, an optimization algorithm is used to evaluate the trade-off between total expenditure (totex) and the prevention of future asset failures (serviceability) to identify the optimized investment policy according to the decision maker’s priorities. Despite attracting an estimated yearly expenditure from water utilities operating across the developed world in excess of £4.42 billion per annum, the authors believe this is the first instance of optimizing communication pipe maintenance policies at the asset level in the industry. A case study is used to demonstrate the development and deployment of this methodology for South West Water (U.K.), whereby £8.5 million in savings and the prevention of up to 1,320 failures have been identified over a 25-year planning horizon.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The authors gratefully acknowledge the continued support from EPSRC through their funding of the STREAM Industrial Doctorate Centre, and from the project sponsors (AECOM).
References
Berardi, L., et al. (2008). “Development of pipe deterioration models for water distribution systems using EPR.” J. Hydroinf., 10(2), 113.
British Standards Institute. (2014). “Asset management: Overview, principles and terminology, UK.” ⟨http://shop.bsigroup.com/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030300420⟩ (Apr. 28, 2015).
Clark, R., Stafford, C., and Goodrich, J. (1982). “Water distribution systems: A spatial and cost evaluation.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. Div., 108(3), 243–256.
Dandy, G. C., and Engelhardt, M. O. (2006). “Multi-objective trade-offs between cost and reliability.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 79–88.
Department for Transport. (2012). “Guidance on road classification and the primary route network.” ⟨https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/315783/road-classification-guidance.pdf⟩ (Jan. 8, 2015).
Eftec. (2007). “PR09 willingness to pay customer survey.” ⟨http://corporate.unitedutilities.com/documents/C1_Appendices.pdf⟩ (Apr. 21, 2015).
Engelhardt, M., Skipworth, P., Savic, D. A., Cashman, A., Walters, G. A., and Saul, A. J. (2002). “Determining maintenance requirements of a water distribution network using whole life costing.” J. Qual. Maint. Eng., 8(2), 152–164.
Engelhardt, M. O., Skipworth, P. J., Savic, D. A., Saul, A. J., and Walters, G. A. (2000). “Rehabilitation strategies for water distribution networks : A literature review with a UK perspective.” Urban Water, 2(2), 153–170.
Giustolisi, O., Laucelli, D., and Savic, D. A. (2006). “Development of rehabilitation plans for water mains replacement considering risk and cost-benefit assessment.” Civ. Eng. Environ. Syst., 23(3), 175–190.
Giustolisi, O., and Savić, D. A. (2006). “A symbolic data-driven technique based on evolutionary polynomial regression.” J. Hydroinf., 8(3), 207–222.
Gupta, B., and Guttman, I. (2014). “Statistics and probability with applications for engineers and scientists, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Halhal, D., Walters, G. A., Ouazar, D., and Savic, D. A. (1997). “Water network rehabilitation with structured messy genetic algorithm.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 137–146.
Heather, A. I. J., and Bridgeman, J., (2007). “Water industry asset management: A proposed service-performance model for investment.” Water Environ. J., 21(2), 127–132.
Hooper, R., Armitage, R., Gallagher, A., and Osorio, T. (2009). “Whole-life infrastructure asset management: Good practice guide for civil infrastructure.” CIRIA, London.
Lasdon, L. S., Fox, R. L., and Ratner, M. W. (1974). “Nonlinear optimization using the generalized reduced gradient method.” RAIRO-Oper. Res.-Recherche Opérationnelle, 3(8), 73–103.
Lei, J., and Sægrov, S. (1998). “Statistical approach for describing failures and lifetimes of water mains.” Water Sci. Tech., 38(6), 209–217.
Lemer, A. (1998). “Progress toward integrated infrastructure-assets-management systems: GIS and beyond.” APWA Int. Public Works Congress, American Public Works Association, Kansas City, MO, 7–24.
Li, D., and Haimes, Y. (1992). “Optimal maintenance-related decision making for deteriorating water distribution systems. 1: Semi-Markovian model for a water main.” Water Resour. Res., 28(4), 1053–1061.
Mailhot, A., Pelletier, G., Noël, J.-F., and Villeneuve, J.-P. (2000). “Modeling the evolution of the structural state of water pipe networks with brief recorded pipe break histories: Methodology and application.” Water Resour. Res., 36(10), 3053–3062.
Mendel, J. M. (2000). Uncertain rule-based fuzzy logic systems: Introduction and new directions, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Nafi, A., and Kleiner, Y. (2010). “Scheduling renewal of water pipes while considering adjacency of infrastructure works and economies of scale.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 519–530.
Nazif, S., Karamouz, M., Tabesh, M., and Moridi, A. (2010). “Pressure management model for urban water distribution networks.” Water Resour. Manage., 24(3), 437–458.
Nicklow, J., et al. (2010). “State of the art for genetic algorithms and beyond in water resources planning and management.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 412–432.
Ofwat. (2010). “June return. Past information on company performance.” ⟨http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/regulating/junereturn/jrhistoricdata/⟩ (Oct. 29, 2014).
Ofwat. (2014). “Responsibility for water and sewerage pipes.” ⟨http://www.ofwat.gov.uk/consumerissues/rightsresponsibilities/supplypipes/⟩ (Nov. 11, 2014).
Sacluti, F. R. (1999). “Modeling water distribution pipe failures using artificial neural networks.” M.S. thesis, Univ. of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
Savic, D. A., and Walters, G. A. (1997). “Genetic algorithms for least-cost design of water distribution networks.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage., 67–77.
Shamir, U., and Howard, C. (1979). “An analytic approach pipe replacement.” Am. Water Work Assoc., 71(5), 248–258.
South West Water. (2013). “The company.” ⟨http://www.southwestwater.co.uk/index.cfm?articleid=803⟩ (May 20, 2013).
Srinivas, M., and Patnaik, L. M. (1994). “Adaptive probabilities of crossover and mutation in genetic algorithms.” ⟨http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=286385⟩ (Apr. 24, 2015).
U.K. Government. (2015). “Valuation office agency. Her Majesty’s revenue and customs.” ⟨https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/valuation-office-agency/about⟩ (Nov. 2, 2015).
UKWIR. (2002). “Capital maintenance planning: A common framework.” U.K. Water Industry Research Ltd., London.
Ward, B., Selby, A., Gee, S., and Savic, D. (2016). “Deterioration modelling of small-diameter water pipes under limited data availability.” J. Infrastruct. Syst., 1–7.
Weibull, W. (1951). “A statistical distribution function of wide applicability.” J. Appl. Mech., 103, 293–297.
Willis, K. G., Scarpa, R., and Acutt, M. (2005). “Assessing water company customer preferences and willingness to pay for service improvements: A stated choice analysis.” Water Resour. Res., 41(2), W02019.
WRc & UKWIR. (2005). A guide to water service pipes, WRc Publications, Swindon, U.K.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice
Volume 8 • Issue 3 • August 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 20, 2015
Accepted: Nov 23, 2016
Published ahead of print: Mar 9, 2017
Published online: Mar 10, 2017
Published in print: Aug 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Aug 10, 2017
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.