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The requirement to provide urban water services continuously while infrastructures are ageing, imposes the need for increasingly sustainable infrastructure asset management (IAM). To achieve and maintain adequate levels of service, the AWARE-P IAM methodology has been applied in collaborative projects launched by the National Civil Engineering Laboratory, in partnership with IST (Technical University of Lisbon), Addition (software company) and several water utilities. The objective of these projects is to support urban water utilities in the development, implementation and maintenance of IAM plans. To guarantee the success of IAM planning, following the AWARE-P IAM methodology, utilities are required to: consider that the infrastructure has system behaviour and lifespan is indefinite and guarantee the full-alignment of IAM planning with organisation objectives. By analysing the strategic and tactical plans of participating utilities, the proposed methodology principles are discussed and supported. The main innovation results from the implementation of IAM planning are also presented and discussed, including the challenges of setting up an IAM process, together with the major benefits and drawbacks that come up when developing IAM plans. The results were demonstrated by the effective implementation of 16 strategic and 14 tactical IAM plans by the participating utilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present work employs a performance assessment approach to the field of water quality in distribution networks. At its core is a performance-driven, accurate multi-parameter water quality model for physical and chemical parameter simulation. A performance assessment methodology is followed through the development of penalty curves which take into consideration regulatory aspects in drinking water quality aswell as operational and technical management policy objectives. PERFORMANCE-Q constitutes an innovative first proposal for a performance-driven water quality model. The change in philosophy from the traditional approach yields some considerable benefits for the water systems' engineer and manager, not only enabling a direct, performance-orientated analysis that can be easily standardised to afford non-specialists the best informed views of the problem, but also accelerating theprocess of sensitivity and the gaining of knowledge over the system and its behaviour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The level of service provided by water supply and distribution systems is one of the key issues facing the water industry today. However,measuring the performance and assessing the level of service provided by a water distribution network are not straightforward tasks, given the multiple factors and viewpoints involved, and the lack of a unified approach or a single clear-cut definition of performance. This paper addresses the engineering side of the problem, by using a flexible framework based on an array of performance indices. The Performance Evaluation System developed is a technical analysis tool, designed to shift the focus of management and operations of water systems to awider more rigorous, performance-orientated view. It is based on a system of penalty curves, flexible enough to accommodate individual sensitivities and interpretations. The methodology allows for a rapid gain in sensitivity to the network's behaviour, providing a standardised means of diagnosis, and is a valuable aid for planning, design, operation and rehabilitation of water distribution systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]