Urban Water and Wastewater
Infrastructure in Europe
Dr Gerald Jones
Chairman Cost Action C3
COST C3 - Diagnosis of Urban Infrastructure
Focus on Water and Wastewater
Current Participants
Belgium
Italy
Canada
Norway
Denmark
Portugal
Finland
Switzerland
France
UK
Germany
The Approach
•Sharing experience between participants
•International workshop - Identifying Needs and
Problems, Brussels 1996
•National workshops e.g. Italy, France, Germany,
Finland
•Programme development for future initiatives
Key Areas
Formulating a perspective and set of priorities
from
an end user viewpoint
•Problem definition - the managers
viewpoint
•Information/data management
•Data acquisition
•Making decisions
Key Areas
Problem Definition - The Managers Viewpoint
•Knowledge of condition and performance still
rather limited
•General acceptance of need for increased
capital and maintenance expenditure
•Systematic ways of dealing with problems can
avoid a serious ‘infrastrucrure crisis’
Problem Definition - The Managers Viewpoint
(contd)
•Need indicators of system performance as a
basis for rehabilitation planning
•Pipe systems must be assessed in the context
of their surrounding environment
•Need to co-ordinate activity on different
infrastructure systems
Problem Definition - The Managers Viewpoint
(contd)
•Recent developments in Information Technology
offer major efficiency improvement opportunities
•Need competent professional management skills
to successfully tackle the infrastructure problem
Decision Making Processes - Key Elements
Legal regulations/political demands
Sustainability
targets
Performance
targets
System
configuration
Performance
indicators
Legal regulations/political demands
Sustainability
targets
Performance
targets
System
configuration
Performance
indicators
Decision Making Process - Key Elements
Meeting &
control of targets
Maintenance &
rehabilitation
measures
Technical
decision
making
Data collection
Analysis &
diagnosis
Data
transformation
Meeting &
control of targets
Maintenance &
rehabilitation
measures
Technical
decision
making
Data collection
Analysis &
diagnosis
Data
transformation
Decision Making Process (contd)
Good
Market
No
Market
Vegetation and Urban Civil Engineering
•Urban trees/vegetation of increasing importance
and concern
•Infrastructure disturbed and damaged by
trees/vegetation
•Vegetation/trees damaged by construction work
Vegetation and Urban Civil Engineering
City Gardeners/Utility Engineers/Contractors
Short Sighted
Economic Interests
Narrow
Minded Views
Conflict
Vegetation and Urban Civil Engineering
City Gardeners/Utility Engineers/Contractors
Open minded collaboration
Conflict Revolution
Sensible Solutions
Key Points
Towards:Active Management
Target expenditure whilst minimising risk of failure
Away from:Crisis (or Reactive) Management
This represents a significant change for many countries
Key Points (contd)
Need improved enabling technologies to measure and
assess performance and condition
Not all problems are associated with older systems
Key Points (contd)
Need improved funding mechanisms to transfer
experience and know-how between countries
Future Programme Areas
I
Management Tools and Decision Support
II
Water Distribution
III Sewerage
}
Existing, renovated, new
systems
IV Sustainable stormwater management
V Urban vegetation
Future Perspective
Increasing
Emphasis
due
to
Magnitude and
Strategic
Importance of Asset
Need to target
investments
Increasingly stringent
requirements
- regulators
- customers
Future Perspective (contd)
Problems with
new
infrastructure
need
to be addressed
•Product performance
•Quality
•Procurement
practice
•Site skills
•etc.
Future Perspective (contd)
Re-structuring of end-users
Regionalisation  corporatisation
Need to re-define, re-structure
supply chains
Future Perspective (contd)
End-user/customer sophistication
Increasing
Larger but
Less
customers