Asset management of drinking water networks

The supply of drinking water is an essential activity on which society depends and which plays a role in social well-being. The supply of drinking water to populations relies on infrastructures, a significant proportion of which are underground pipe networks. The construction of drinking water networks, which began in the late 19th century, reached its peak in France in the 1970s and 1980s, when almost 900,000 km of underground pipes were laid to provide universal service. Today, public authorities and network managers are faced with the challenge of managing these infrastructures over the long term, as they represent a valuable asset with a long service life. Under the combined effects of aging systems, changing service demands and legal, environmental, urban, health and budgetary constraints, the central challenge of managing drinking water network assets is to guarantee a satisfactory level of performance (including risk management) through the annual renewal of a fraction of the pipe network and optimization of system operation (via targeted investment where necessary). Based on in-depth knowledge of the assets, the failures to which they are exposed and their environment, decision-making tools are developed using statistical models to define asset management strategies and optimize work programs.

This article is divided into four sections. The first, after outlining the organization and specific features of drinking water supply infrastructures, provides an overview of networks on a European and French scale. The second part examines the determinants that guide pipe renewal, and shows how the impact of network failures on network performance is a central decision-making factor that is not adequately taken into account by approaches based on pipe age. The third part lists the elements of the technical knowledge base of the network, its operation, its environment and its failures, which is necessary to conduct an optimized infrastructure asset management strategy. The fourth and final part presents the approach and components of technical decision-support tools combining prediction of pipe failures and multi-criteria analysis of service performance.