Infrastructure asset management – the TRUST approach and professional tools

Strategic asset management (AM) of urban water infrastructures faces the challenge of dealing with expensive and long-lasting assets of a very diverse nature and wide-ranging useful lives and costs. Typically, utility managers inherit an infrastructure with assets in assorted conditions and stages in their lifecycle. They are expected to manage their value in order to ensure adequate service, and make sure that what they pass on to their successors is capable of continuing to do so. Long-term vision is needed, and sound transition paths must be sought in order to ensure that urban water services are sustainable, without jeopardizing the quality of the service provided during the transition. Focusing on the transition to more sustainable services, the TRUST project revisited the concept of sustainability, explored pressures and drivers, and developed and tested a roadmapping methodology to cope with the implementation of disruptive solutions. Leading-edge analysis and assessment methods and tools were developed, multiple technologies were tested, scientific and guidance publications were produced. All of this can be explored and absorbed into a coherent management process. This paper describes the TRUST approach for infrastructure AM, addressing strategic, tactical and operational planning, supported by professional-grade software.