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Applying Risk Management Principles and Innovative Technologies to Effectively Manage

Water Infrastructure Systems
Sunil K. Sinha1; Ahmad Habibian2 ; Devan Thomas3; Matt Carter4;
and Jian Zhang5
1
Professor and Director, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 117C Patton Hall,
Blacksburg, VA. E-mail: ssinha@vt.edu
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2
Vice President, CDM Smith. E-mail: habibiana@cdmsmith.com
3
Vice President, AECOM. E-mail: devan.thomas@aecom.com
4
Asset Manager, WATERONE. E-mail: mcarter@waterone.org
5
Research Manager, Water Research Foundation. E-mail: jzhang@waterrf.org

ABSTRACT
The goal of this research, Applying Risk Management Principles and Innovative
Technologies to Effectively Manage Deteriorating Water Infrastructure, is to capture the
innovative approaches, tools, and processes that have been used to effectively manage
deteriorating water infrastructure. The project will compile examples from utilities across the
United States, Canada, and Australia to increase the use and understanding of risk management
principles and innovative technologies to effectively manage deteriorating water infrastructure
systems. Current literature and guidance documents tend to focus on the “what” of condition
assessment, asset renewal, and risk management principles, but provide little guidance on how
utilities can leverage current technology and approaches to improve levels of service or increase
the useful life of water infrastructure systems. For example, information on how utilities can
apply risk management principles and innovative technologies for condition assessment and
asset renewal most cost-effectively is not readily available. The proposed research project will
result in a milestone document, titled Synthesis Report on Applying Risk Management Principles
and Innovative Technologies to Effectively Manage Deterioration of Water Infrastructure, that
synthesizes, and analyzes the practices that leading utilities use to manage their deteriorating
water system infrastructure. The Synthesis Report will describe which practices have proved
successful. Other utilities will be able to use the Synthesis Report to review case studies and
apply best practices to their own situation. The presentation will focus directly on what water
utilities need and how well our work products meet those needs. We will use feedback from the
session, and our own experience in managing utility practices to fill gaps and revise materials, to
identify utility needs. The proposed session will focus on water infrastructure systems to define:
use and understanding of risk assessment and management approaches; understanding of
deterioration mechanisms of different assets; use and understanding of condition assessment
techniques; use and understanding of the full range of rehabilitation technologies; and improved
understanding for more cost-effective asset renewal. The goal of the presentation is to present a
list of topic areas to cover the focus area objectives. We will present the goals, objectives, scope,
and methodology of this research project as well as the preliminary results of literature and
practice review from 45 water utilities across USA, Canada, and Australia.

INTRODUCTION
The latest Infrastructure Report Card prepared by American Society of Civil Engineers

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(ASCE) 2017 has again scored America’s Drinking Water Infrastructure a near failing grade of
D (ASCE 2017). The water infrastructure in America is aging poorly and time and again results
in catastrophic events, which impact the society, economy, and the environment. ASCE has also
provided an estimate of $1 trillion investment in drinking water infrastructure to maintain and
expand the demand over the next 25 years (ASCE 2017). All of this indicates that there is an
urgent need to better manage our drinking water infrastructure assets, anticipate and prevent
early failures, and strategically reinvest to improve reliability and reduce life cycle costs. A
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proactive approach for water infrastructure asset management requires that water utilities pre-
plan their renewal strategies based on regular condition and risk assessments. An efficient
method for the proactive management of these assets is a “risk-based asset management
program” which helps in identifying the critical assets for renewal and prevents the wastage of
money and time in the renewal of “not so critical” assets. A risk-based asset management
program can serve as a practical solution to sustain and improve the performance of water
infrastructure assets due to its capabilities of assessing the risk of failure associated with an asset
and developing renewal strategies to prevent the failures proactively. Before developing a risk-
based asset management program, it is imperative to understand the following: (1) what a risk-
based asset management program is; (2) how can have a risk-based asset management program
be applied to different classes of water assets; and (3) what are the benefits of implementing such
a program. According to the United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA), “Asset
management is the practice of managing infrastructure assets in such a way to minimize the total
cost of owning and operating these assets while delivering the desired levels of service” (EPA
2017). In, simple words, an asset management program aims to enhance the overall service life
of an asset by conducting cost-effective repairs, rehabilitation, or replacements throughout its life
whenever deemed required by the condition and risk assessments. A risk-based asset
management program generally focuses on assessing and managing the risk of failure associated
with water infrastructure and has the following focus areas or components:
 Understanding the asset deterioration modes and mechanisms
 Implementing risk assessment and management approaches
 Conducting periodic condition assessments
 Implementing asset renewal approaches and technologies
A review of current literature and practice suggests the following benefits of a risk-based
asset management program:
1. Providing required maintenance throughout the life of asset can enhance Service life.
2. The overall cost of owning and operating the asset can be reduced as the extra cost
incurred due to the premature failure of deteriorating assets is decreased.
3. The process of developing budgets can be streamlined and made more repeatable and
defensible by prioritizing the renewal of the assets in the most critical condition.
This paper aims to improve the understanding and encourage the implementation of risk-
based asset management by documenting practices used by infrastructure owners and operators
across various classes of water assets. The main components of the risk-based asset management
program, namely, deterioration modes and mechanisms, risk assessment and management
approach, condition assessment approaches and technologies, and asset renewal approaches and
technologies are analyzed in detail through a comprehensive literature and practice review.

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Table 1: Guidelines for Risk-Based Asset Management of Pipelines, Valves, and Hydrants
Steps Tasks Benefits Challenges Approaches
Step 1: Develop an Aid in Efficient CMMS, SCADA systems
Develop understanding of formulating the management
pipeline, the various risk-based asset of a
valves, pipes, valves, management significant
and and hydrants and strategy and amount of
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hydrant their budget due to in- data collected,

asset characteristics depth knowledge implementatio
registry regarding the n of CMMS
features and by smaller
quantities of the utilities
assets
Step 2: Develop a Aid in An accurate Most common deterioration
Obtain an knowledge base formulating the understanding modes include circumferential
understan for all the failure deterioration and of the cracks, bell splitting,
ding of modes observed failure deterioration longitudinal cracking, bell
the for the different prevention modes for shearing, blowout holes, joint
deteriorati material of strategy different types leaks, gasket failure, structural
on modes pipelines, valves, of assets socket failures, valve collapse,
and hydrants valve jamming
Step 3: Develop a Enhanced Identifying Most common deterioration
Obtain the knowledge base knowledge the most mechanisms include corrosion,
understan for the actual regarding the precise failure excessive stresses,
ding of cause or behavior of the mechanism; manufacturing flaws, design
the failure mechanism in pipe, valves, and identifying flaws, construction flaws
mechanis which a pipeline, hydrants; more technologies
ms valve, or a advanced and
hydrant fails analysis can be approaches
conducted for
understanding
failure
mechanism
Step 4: Condition Understanding of Identifying CCTV cameras, acoustic leak
Assess the assessment of the current the most cost- detection/hydrophones, remote
condition pipelines to condition helps effective field technology, magnetic flux
and understand the in prioritizing condition leakage, transient pressure
performan current state of assets for assessment monitoring, soil resistivity
ce of the the asset with renewal; aid in technology, survey, smart pipes, augmented
pipeline, minimum service the selection of identifying reality, intelligent pigs,
valves, disruption and repair/rehabilitati pipeline- deterministic models,
and maintaining the on/replacement specific probabilistic models, statistical
hydrants level of service based on the condition models, artificial neural
condition of the assessment network models, fuzzy logic
pipeline technologies models, valve exercising fire
flow tests, and air scouring

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Steps Tasks Benefits Challenges Approaches

Step 5: Calculate the risk Identification of Determining The probability of failure: using
Assess the of failure based the high-risk the a predictive model, using the
risk of on the pipes, along with environmental data that are known for the
failure probability and the costs, pipeline, such as age, soil
associated consequence of socioeconomic customer conditions, historical accounts,
with the failure and impacts, and inspection findings The
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pipeline, environmental socioeconomi consequence of failure TBL

valves, impacts of the c costs approach
and failure
hydrants
Step 6: Formulate risk The service life Formulating Routine CCTV inspections to
Formulate management of pipelines, asset specific check the integrity of drinking
risk approaches to valves, and risk water pipelines
managem prevent the risk hydrants management
ent of failure increase; capital approaches
strategies and time in
reactive
maintenance is
saved
Step 7: Formulate the Capital and time Identification Multi-Criteria Decision
Develop strategy to is saved on the of the key Analysis Non-Homogenous
Renewal prioritize the renewal of less factors to Poisson Process
Prioritizat renewal of critical pipes; define a
ion pipelines more attention pipeline
Strategy on the most criticality
critical pipelines
Step 8: Apply Enhanced Identifying Repair: Protective coatings,
Repair/Re repair/rehabilitati service life; cost-effective internal sleeves, wraps, repair
habilitatio on or improved renewal clamps Rehabilitation: CIPP
n/Replace replacement performance of approaches liners, SIPP liners, GIPP liners
ment approaches and the asset; and Replacement: Pipe bursting,
technologies to mitigation in the technologies, HDD, pipe pulling
the deteriorating risk of failure; selection of
pipelines minimum the most
disruption in appropriate
service; renewal
customer technology
satisfaction
Step 9: Determine the Overall quality Determining Feedback forms, performance
Evaluate efficiency of the and effectiveness standards for analysis, and monitoring
the AMP through of the AMP acceptable/po
pipeline feedback and increases by or/good AMP
AMP for performance continuous
improvem monitoring at feedback and
ent every step monitoring

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Steps Tasks Benefits Challenges Approaches

Step 10: Collect condition Enhanced Expertise GIS, WATERiD, and/or
Build a assessment, risk understanding of required for PIPEiD
database assessment, data the pipeline data collection
to support to aid advanced performance and
advanced risk analysis parameters for management
asset risk
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managem management,
ent enhanced
knowledge of the
high-risk
pipelines
○AMP = asset management plan
○CCTV = closed-circuit television
○CMMS = Computerized Maintenance Management System
○GIPP = grouted-in-place pipe
○GIS = Geographic Information System
○HDD = horizontal directional drilling
○SCADA = supervisory control and data acquisition
○SIPP = spray-in-place pipe
○TBL = triple-bottom-line

COMPREHENSIVE LITERATURE AND PRACTICE REVIEWS

A comprehensive review of literature research was conducted to identify the current state of
knowledge pertaining to deterioration mechanisms, risk management, condition assessment, and
renewal techniques for water treatment plants (WTPs), storage tanks, pumps and pumping
stations, wells, reservoirs, pipelines, valves, and hydrants. The research team had access to a
significant number of online databases containing academic publications from major engineering
and science publishers, such as ISI Web of Science, EBSCO Host, Engineering Village, and the
ASCE database. The approach has leveraged both the team’s access to all relevant industry
information, and its extensive experience in performing this type of knowledge review to
compile and synthesize information.

LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review of this research was conducted in two stages. First, a quantitative stage
of literature search in engineering bibliographic online databases was conducted. Keywords and
concepts related to topic areas were searched and results were evaluated. The objective of the
first stage (quantitative) was to provide a numerical overview of the project focus areas
published in the literature. Country of origin, publication year, and vocabulary were recorded in
each database search. The second stage was a qualitative review of the topic areas, including risk
assessment, condition assessment, and renewal engineering. The objective of the second stage
(qualitative) was to present a critical review of the current state of the topic areas. Synthesis
analysis of existing literature was developed based on the result of this two-stage literature
review process.

PRACTICE REVIEW
The practice review of this research was conducted in two stages: First, a comprehensive

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practice review of existing case studies was conducted to compile published information on the
various risk assessment and management approaches, condition assessment approaches and
technologies, and asset renewal approaches and technologies that have been implemented by
utilities for pipelines, valves, hydrants, treatment plants, pumps, tanks, wells, and reservoirs. In
this stage, 187 published case studies were reviewed. Second, a screening-level questionnaire
was developed, based on a list of topic focus areas, to select candidates for case study
development. The research team contacted utilities, seeking projects that would be suitable for
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the development of case studies. A screening-level questionnaire was used to determine whether
projects met the research criteria for case study development. Depending on the responses to the
screening-level questionnaire, additional documents—such as reports and technical memoranda
created by the utilities in the course of project execution—were obtained to better understand the
overall asset management practices. Using a standard template, case studies were developed for
specific projects, focusing on unique circumstances, responses, and tools. The new case studies
covered water infrastructure asset condition assessment techniques, risk assessment, risk
management, deterioration modes and mechanisms of water system infrastructure assets, and
renewal techniques and strategies. The goal has been to capture, through interviews and meetings
with key staff, innovative tools and techniques that have been implemented by water utilities.

SYNTHESIS ANALYSIS
Synthesis analysis of existing literature and practice review was developed based on the
results of the two-stage process.

PROPOSED GUIDELINES FOR RISK-BASED ASSET MANAGEMENT

The proposed guidelines provided in Table 1 can be followed to improve the overall service
life of drinking water pipelines, valves, and hydrants, and mitigate the risk of failure.

CONCLUSIONS
The research provides a comprehensive synthesis and analysis of the knowledge gained
through an extensive literature and practice review regarding the risk-based asset management of
water pipelines, valves, hydrants, treatment plants, pumps, tanks, wells, and reservoirs. Along
with this, a number of innovative approaches and technologies are identified and discussed in
this report which are either mentioned in the literature review or are implemented by water
utilities and covered in the practice review. This report provides an overview of the current state
of knowledge and implementation existing in the industry regarding the understanding of
deterioration modes and mechanisms, condition assessment approaches and technologies, risk
assessment and management approaches, and asset renewal approaches and technologies for
pipelines, valves, and hydrants. This research has revealed that even though there is considerable
understanding existing in the industry regarding the risk-based asset management of drinking
water pipelines, there still much to be learned to reach the same level of expertise and application
of risk-based asset management approaches and technologies for valves and hydrants. It is
necessary to consider the drinking water pipelines, valves, and hydrants as a system and to
provide equal importance and priority to all these assets to attain an efficient water system.

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RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WATER UTILTIES

Asset Type: Pipelines
 The most common approach to represent the risk of failure of drinking water pipelines ins
a “risk matrix.” The matrix demonstrates the pipes in different risk zones on a graph, with
a probability of failure on one axis and the consequence of failure on another axis.
 The probability of failure can be estimated using predictive models, statistical models,
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deterministic models, probabilistic models, and other advanced mathematical models.

 The consequence of failure can be estimated as the product of the weighted average score
of all the consequence of failure factors. Another standard approach for calculating the
consequence of the failure of a pipeline is the triple-bottom-line (TBL) approach that
considers the economic, social, and environmental consequences of a pipeline failure.

Asset Type: Hydrants

 Distribution system reliability directly impacts consumer confidence. Fire hydrants are
the most visible part of a water system and should be inspected on a regular basis.
 The use of non-skilled labor as part of the inspection program can be effective when
using the GIS application to track their progress.
 Lack of a Hydrant Inspection Application makes tracking of the hydrant inspections is
difficult and time consuming.
 In order to ensure effective asset management of fire hydrants, hydrants should be
checked by visual inspection for external damage, all nozzle caps should be removed and
screw threads should be greased, valve operation should be checked, barrel drainage
should be inspected, stem nuts should be oiled, and the hydrant should be repainted, if
necessary.

Asset Type: Hydrants

 To ensure the ability to maintain the distribution system, valves need to function properly
and a valve inspection program is the key component in identifying valve maintenance
issues.
 Developing a Valve Inspection Application to track valve inspections saved time and
paper work thereby reducing costs.
 Significant modes of failure for valves include joint fracture, joint cracks, valve collapse,
valve jamming, coating failures, corrosion of internal components, and support failure.
 For pressure- reducing valves (PRVs), the risk of failure can be maintained by including
installation of new automatic air release valves near PRV,; installation of additional
pressure relief valves upstream and downstream of the new PRV,; and supervisory
control and data acquisition (SCADA) alarm settings for upstream pressure, downstream
pressure, and flow.
 Condition assessment of the valves can be performed using Aa condition rating index of
five categories: the condition of valves into five categories namely, very good, good, fair,
poor, and very poor. These ratings are based on the characteristics (age, style, make, and
model), and state of the asset (operability, parts availability, and potential to cause
damage if operated) of the asset can be utilized for condition assessment of valves.
 In order to improve the overall service life, valves, valves should be properly installed,

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should not be buried under excessive fill, valves should be set near intersecting streets or
fire hydrants, and should have marker stakes set on cross-country lines,. Valve boxes
should be placed above the valve, heavy valves should be supported, and records
prepared by the installing crew should be stored and well maintained.

Asset Type: Pumps

 Regular inspections and planned maintenance can help prevent loss of a critical pump,
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and thus production loss at critical times.

 Looking at each of the factors that affect the rebuilding or replacement of a pump can be
beneficial in justifying cost savings versus timesavings.
 Failure modes of a pumping station can be divided into four categories: capacity, cost-of-
service delivery, obsolescence, and physical mortality (deterioration and failure).

Asset Type: Water Wells

 An effective well monitoring program is needed to determine collector well performance
since a snapshot of performance is not indicative of overall performance.
 Teaming with a contractor that is experienced in this work can save time and effort.
 Deterioration modes of water wells found in the literature include biofouling, mineral
incrustation, sediment plugging, structural failure (corrosion and poor construction),
over-pumping, aquifer depletion, well interference, and contamination. Construction
flaws, material deterioration, and physical damage were also identified as the sources of
structural deterioration for wells.

Asset Type: Storage Tanks

 Scheduled inspections can reduce overall system risk.
 Keeping inspection data can be useful to determine asset deterioration and modes of
failure.
 Regular cleanings help maintain system wide water quality.
 Maintaining a 5-year inspection cycle is imperative to lowering operational risks.
 Asset management plan (AMP) for storage tanks typically consist of continuous
maintenance of safety conditions, sanitary conditions, coatings conditions, structural
conditions, and security conditions of water storage tanks.

Asset Type: Treatment Plants

 Enhanced coagulation accelerates deterioration of concrete, accelerates corrosion of rebar
and equipment, and contributes to WTP deterioration and failure.
 Using a Delphi- group (a group of experts and operators who have knowledge of the
WTP) is important for creating a risk assessment and management plan.
 Integrated asset management is also a useful technique for condition assessment. Use of
an Integrated Decision Support Systems (IDSS) information technology tool helped
support integrated asset management.
 Grade profiles is a condition assessment technique across asset stock where complex
assets have been split into an asset hierarchy. A representative sampling strategy can be
used with statistics to predict overall behavior. Gap rating is another condition
assessment technique where grading of asset is provided in two conditions: the current

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condition and the required condition. The difference between the current and required
conditions is the gap rating.

Asset Type: Reservoirs

 Material for reservoir construction has to be considered in terms of long-term operation
and should be selected and constructed so that there is less chance of failure. Major
deterioration modes in reservoirs such as blisters and bulges on the surface should be
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addressed appropriately.
 The type of model to be used will depend on the cost, level of complexity, data available,
and type of information to be analyzed. Although several complex models are available,
sometimes the simpler models are more relevant and can be developed using the in-house
expertise of reservoir managers.
 Rapid water quality monitoring is a valuable tool to ensure water quality in water supply
reservoirs and track changes over short periods of time. A reservoir profile monitoring
program is important to manage stratification issues; controlling stratification through
aeration should be considered.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RESEARCHERS

Linear Assets
The following are the recommendations provided for research work to fill the existing gaps
in the body of knowledge for pipeline, valves, and hydrant asset management:
 More understanding of the deterioration mechanism for all types of pipelines, valves, and
hydrants is required. By developing more enhanced knowledge regarding why the assets
fail and what are influencing parameters, better condition assessment technologies and
methodologies could be applied to prevent these failures and better manage performance.
 Risk management approaches for drinking water pipelines should be formulated, because
mostly risk assessment approaches are found in the literature and practice review. It is not
prudent to directly conduct renewal after risk assessment. It is also essential to implement
risk management approaches to better manage the risk and performance in the future.
 Research should be done to identify more repair, rehabilitation, and replacement
technologies for valves and hydrants other than just coatings and cathodic protection.

Vertical Assets
The following are the recommendations provided for research work to fill the existing gaps
in knowledge for treatment plants, storage tanks, pumps, wells, and reservoirs:
 More research is needed to understand the deterioration modes and mechanisms for all
the vertical water infrastructure assets.
 A standardized condition assessment model needs to be developed for WTPs so that the
best practices are all implemented.
 There are advanced condition assessments technologies for other water infrastructure
systems, like visual and camera methods, acoustic-based methods, ultrasonic testing
methods and laser-based methods, to name a few. However, no condition assessment
technologies are found for WTPs, and such technologies should be developed.
 Mechanisms of deterioration other than corrosion need to be identified for vertical assets.

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 Renewal methods other than protective coatings need to be identified for storage tanks.
 There still a need for improvement in the risk-based asset management of all the vertical
assets, which is lacking when compared to the extent of understanding and innovation in
the asset management of horizontal water infrastructure such as pipelines, valves, and
hydrants. More research and real-world application of innovative risk-based asset
management approaches and technologies is required to improve the knowledge
regarding vertical assets asset management.
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REFERENCES
American Society of Civil Engineers (2017). “Infrastructure Report Card-2017”.
<https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/drinking-water/ >(November 5th.
Environment Protection Agency. “Asset Management Workshops Training Slides.” <
https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-water-infrastructure/asset-management-workshops-training-
slides> (Jan 10th 2017).
Environment Protection Agency. (2017). “Asset Management for Water and Wastewater
Utilities.” < https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-water-infrastructure/asset-management-water-
and-wastewater-utilities> (Nov 5th 2017).
Sinha, S. K., Thuruthy, N., Catalano, L., Pamela, H., Leighton, J., Nelson, R. and Rajah, S.
(2013). “Condition Assessment of Drinking Water Pipelines”. Water Environment and
Research Foundation, Alexandria, VA, 1-206.
Clair, A.M., and Sinha, S. K. (2012). “State-of-the-technology review on water pipe condition,
deterioration and failure rate prediction models”. Urban Journal, 9(2), 85-112.
Grigg, N.S., Fontane, D.G., and Zyl, J.V. (2013). “Water Distribution System Risk Tool for
Investment Planning.” Water Research Foundation, Denver, Colorado.
Kleiner, Y., and Colombo, A. (2014). “Condition Assessment of Large Diameter Iron Pipes”.
Water Research Foundation, Denver, CO.
Shaoqing, G., and Sinha, S. K. (2013). “Management Practice of Drinking Water Pipelines.”
WERF, Alexandria, VA.
Stillman, J. and Jones, M. (2017). “Leading Business Practices in Asset Management Case Study
Report”. AWWA Asset Management Committee,96-104.

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