Integrated Decision-Making: A Must To Do
par : M. Leo Gohier

People either believe that we have an infrastructure crisis today, or that we will have one in the near future. A few of the more important questions then are: how big is the problem, what are we going to do about it, where and when do we start, how much do we spend and where do we get the money? I would propose that the real issue is not lack of money, at least not in terms of overall monies available in society. Many people today pay more for every month for access to the Internet or for cable/satellite television than they do for water and sewer services combined. There are many other “lacks”: lack of understanding, lack of coordination, lack of a sustainable approach to infrastructure management and more importantly lack of a good integrated decision-making tool.

Government agencies that own and operate buried infrastructure systems are facing serious issues in terms of continued quality service delivery to their customers. They often look to technology to solve their problems. This single-sided approach is not only the most costly one, it’s also a stand-alone approach on a utility-by utility basis or department-by-department basis. Sustainable management is the only real long-term solution, and this revolves around achieving a balance between three elements: financial, environmental and social issues. There is therefore a need to incorporate technical requirements, financial requirements and community impacts into an infrastructure management and decision-making package. This would then allow managers of buried and surface infrastructure to move away from the precipice of crumbling infrastructure and towards the stability that sustainable management offers.

The City of Hamilton, ON, Canada adopted a philosophy of a sustainable community in the early 1990’s, and as a result were recognized by the United Nations under their Agenda 21 Program. The challenge then was to develop analytical and decision-making tools that would assist City managers in achieving sustainable management processes. A number of initiatives were taken in this regard, such as a capital budget priority rating system on the basis of sustainability criteria for all capital projects in the City, as well as implementation of a plan to increase water and sewer rates to a sustainable level over a fifteen-year period. The City Council has now further promoted these concepts by supporting a pilot project involving a decision-making tool, developed by Harfan Technologies and Dillon Consulting that would allow infrastructure managers and planners to make the best decisions, on balance, to rehabilitate or replace buried and surface infrastructure in a coordinated fashion, with a view to the long-term. This decision-making tool is also, by default, a sophisticated risk-management tool.

All levels of government generally have significant databases. Unfortunately, in many cases, these are not integrated. There is a great need for integrated data analysis, which in and of itself leads to integrated decision-making. This would not only reduce disruptions in service and in the daily lives of a community, but it would also result in optimization of investments, i.e. the biggest bang for the buck in the long-term on an overall integrated basis. All levels of government need such a tool, as do all governmental organizations and even private businesses that have significant and essential infrastructure that they must manage on the long-term. The time is past for short-term, stand-alone decisions.

Integrated and sustainable infrastructure management is a relatively new concept in the engineering field, because it moves us away from the traditional focus of building infrastructure and towards wise management of existing resources. It also very clearly points out that preventive maintenance (PM), although essential, is not the same as long-term planning and management of infrastructure. PM is in fact only a small part of an integrated approach. Deciding what to do, when to do it and how to do it is key to good infrastructure management. The actual “doing” is the easy part. To that effect, there is a need to develop and/or adopt the use of analytical, financial and decision-making tools that:

• Deal with the current backlog of infrastructure work
   

• Identify and project infrastructure problems that will come up in the next 25-50 years as the balance of the infrastructure ages
   

• Incorporate existing infrastructure into the traditional Master Planning process (current flows, current condition and remaining capacity)
   

• Develop decision-making tools that are based on the principles of sustainability as defined by the United Nations (The United Nations defined sustainability in 1993, under a program called Agenda 21. It is based on making decisions while balancing three things: environmental, financial and social. "Environmental" refers to the physical environment, "financial" refers to the economy/cost of doing something and "social" refers to humans/public health.)
   

• Integrate regulatory financial requirements (such as GASB)
   

• Integrate technical options (such as rehabilitation or replacement)
   

• Integrate community impacts in the decision-making process
   

• Move in the direction of international environmental and quality standards (such as ISO)

In conclusion, the needs are not only here today, but they will only get larger and more numerous as infrastructure ages in the future. There is also much more existing infrastructure in the ground than new infrastructure to be built on an annual basis, in the range of 98% to 2%. A systemic and comprehensive approach to meet these growing needs can only lead to success for companies and communities alike. Our customers, public or private, not only expect it but deserve nothing less.
 

En savoir plus sur l'auteur