All over the world water mains are under increasing threat due to aging, aggressive environmental factors, operational factors and inadequate maintenance. Extensive maintenance, repair and rehabilitation practices, or replacement of water mains are required to ensure an acceptable performance of water supply systems. Investment deficit for water system maintenance and rehabilitation has been estimated in billions. Small to medium sized water utilities are generally impacted more because of limited financial resources and lack of technical expertise. However, water mains integrity is of primary interest due to potential adverse consequences related to public health, safety, and heavy financial liabilities in case of a failure. This paper presents a user-friendly decision support tool to help managers of these water utilities to prioritize maintenance, repair, and replacement (M/R/R) strategies for water mains. This paper proposes a risk index approach which aggregates the water mains vulnerability and associated failure consequences. The developed tool can help decision-makers to rank the water mains and help to prioritize M/R/R strategies. The results have been integrated with a geographic information system that will allow a decision-maker to visualize the vulnerable zones within the network. The City of Kelowna water network is used to demonstrate the proposed approach.
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June 2014
This article was originally published in
Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua
Article Contents
Research Article|
November 30 2013
A decision support tool for water mains renewal for small to medium sized utilities: a risk index approach
Alex Francisque;
Alex Francisque
1School of Engineering, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
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Anjuman Shahriar;
Anjuman Shahriar
1School of Engineering, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
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Nilufar Islam;
Nilufar Islam
1School of Engineering, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
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Getnet Betrie;
Getnet Betrie
1School of Engineering, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
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Riffat Binte Siddiqui;
Riffat Binte Siddiqui
1School of Engineering, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
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Solomon Tesfamariam;
Solomon Tesfamariam
1School of Engineering, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
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Rehan Sadiq
1School of Engineering, University of British Columbia Okanagan, 3333 University Way, Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
2EME-4253, 1137 Alumni Ave., Kelowna, BC V1V 1V7, Canada
E-mail: [email protected]
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Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua (2014) 63 (4): 281–302.
Article history
Received:
May 27 2013
Accepted:
October 24 2013
Citation
Alex Francisque, Anjuman Shahriar, Nilufar Islam, Getnet Betrie, Riffat Binte Siddiqui, Solomon Tesfamariam, Rehan Sadiq; A decision support tool for water mains renewal for small to medium sized utilities: a risk index approach. Journal of Water Supply: Research and Technology-Aqua 1 June 2014; 63 (4): 281–302. doi: https://doi.org/10.2166/aqua.2013.305
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