Full Description

Over the last 100 to 150 years, society has developed a sophisticatedinfrastructure providing heat, light, water, sanitation and more recently,telecommunications to its citizens. Unfortunately, much of this infrastructure isnow approaching the end of its useful life and future generations will be facedwith the cost of replacing these physical assets which are the foundation oftoday's society. To date, most advances in quality have been achieved at marginalcost. The fundamental infrastructure has been in place for many years, and allthat is required is to add further complexity or extra treatment processes inorder to achieve significantly enhanced quality. Future generations will be facedwith a stark choice: can they afford to continue to improve quality at this rateas well as sustain the replacement of the existing infrastructure or will theyhave to modify their aspirations because the economic burden of maintaining eventhe existing infrastructure will stretch their resources to the limit. It isclear that the Water Industry has a significantly higher level of capitalintensity than any other industry. The replacement value of this fixed asset baseis very high and yet it is certain that replacement will be necessary as timetakes its toll and assets wear out. Many municipalities and utility owners arenow beginning to realize that they need to concentrate their efforts onoptimizing the replacement cycle of these assets in order to provide maximumfinancial leverage for the future. Water utilities and municipalities, therefore,now have to develop a strategy which maximizes the useful life of their existingassets and also allows them to prioritize the asset renewal on a uniform basis.This paper discusses the various elements of such a strategy including assetserviceability and advanced maintenance techniques. Includes figures.

Product Details

Edition: Vol. - No. Published: 01/01/2000 Number of Pages: 9File Size: 1 file , 190 KB