Development of performance assessment method for drinking water infrastructure

In Japan, many drinking water systems were developed during the 1960s and 1970s, and a considerable proportion of them is now showing various signs of aging or seismic vulnerability. The major issue for many drinking water utilities is how to update those facilities in the best way to improve their deteriorating/insufficient performance. The existing performance assessment methods for water supply facilities need relatively high technical knowledge and they are only applicable to evaluate individual facilities. The Japan Water Research Center (JWRC) has thus developed a performance assessment method for drinking water infrastructure which requires no special technical investigation or a complicated calculation. Thus, staff of small- and medium-scale drinking water utilities can easily carry out logical function evaluation for their facilities using performance indices and answering questions on daily operation and maintenance. This development is part of the e-Pipe research project that was conducted at JWRC from 2008 through 2010 with Health and Labour Sciences Research Grants from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.