Urban Water and Wastewater Infrastructure in Europe Dr Gerald Jones Chairman Cost Action C3

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Urban Water and WastewaterInfrastructure in
EuropeDr Gerald JonesChairman Cost Action C3
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COST C3 - Diagnosis of Urban InfrastructureFocus
on Water and Wastewater

• Current Participants
• Belgium Italy
• Canada Norway
• Denmark Portugal
• Finland Switzerland
• France UK
• Germany

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Decision Making Processes - Key Elements
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Decision Making Process - Key Elements
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Decision Making Process (contd)
Good Market
No Market
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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

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Vegetation and Urban Civil Engineering
City Gardeners/Utility Engineers/Contractors
Short Sighted Economic Interests
Narrow Minded Views
Conflict
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Vegetation and Urban Civil Engineering
City Gardeners/Utility Engineers/Contractors
Open minded collaboration
Conflict Revolution
Sensible Solutions
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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
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Key Points (contd)
Need improved enabling technologies to measure
and assess performance and condition
Not all problems are associated with older systems
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Key Points (contd)
Need improved funding mechanisms to transfer
experience and know-how between countries
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Future Programme Areas
I Management Tools and Decision Support II Water
Distribution III Sewerage IV Sustainable
stormwater management V Urban vegetation

Existing, renovated, new systems
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Future Perspective
Magnitude and Strategic Importance of Asset
due to
Need to target investments
Increasing Emphasis
Increasingly stringent requirements -
regulators - customers
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Future Perspective (contd)

• Product performance
• Quality
• Procurement practice
• Site skills
• etc.

Problems with new infrastructure need to be
addressed
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Future Perspective (contd)
Re-structuring of end-users Regionalisation ?
corporatisation
Need to re-define, re-structure supply chains
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Future Perspective (contd)