Efficient water infrastructure is critical to the functioning of communities, cities and regions. Traditionally, the expansion of water infrastructure and the management of assets has been determined by growth imperatives; both in terms of population growth driven by urbanisation, and improving economic conditions.
Unprecedented population increases, climate change, natural hazards and infrastructure interdependencies is posing a challenge to the owners and managers of these assets to effectively plan and manage these assets with a view to provide long-term sustainable water, wastewater and storm water services. Development and implementation of strategies and a management framework to resilient water infrastructure is a way forward to respond to such challenges.
This themed issue on the approach to water infrastructure asset management addresses: the management and governance of water infrastructural heritage; innovative investments models for the management of water infrastructure; and the application of a new asset management approach to a large and complex water network.
There is significant built heritage associated with water, which continues to deliver reliable, safe and abundant supplies of water to homes and public baths, agricultural fields and distributing reservoirs across the globe. This issue commences with research into the management and governance of historical water infrastructure. The research of Meisha Hunter, Senior Preservationist, focuses on some of the unique challenges associated with the stewardship of this water infrastructural heritage, at the intersection of water management and historic preservation (Hunter, 2022).
Developing countries, such as South Africa, are now looking at innovative investment models to ensure that the management of water infrastructure is not interrupted. The research of Ruiters and Amadi-Echendu (2022a) develops a public–private partnership framework with considerations to investment models and analysis of the framework’s characteristics, thereby ensuring the sustainability of the water infrastructure value in South Africa. The research finds that an estimated US$2.75 billion per annum is available based on the current financial arrangements, leaving a financial gap of US$2.83 billion per annum in the water infrastructure value chain. Ruiters and Amadi-Echendu (2022b) then continue to look into economic costs, efficiencies, investment challenges and the application economic tools. Through a study of 269 municipalities, it was found that there is a loss of approximately US$2.258 billion per annum for the next 10 years. Overall, it was concluded that under-capital investments have serious downstream implications for socio-economic development and growth.
The issue concludes with the research of Kerwin and Adey (2022), which discusses techniques needed to apply existing methodologies to larger networks. The newly developed methodology is applied on a large distribution network consisting of 14 pressure zones for a 5 year period. The research demonstrated the advantages of a new approach through three applications: estimating the budget requirements needed to implement various intervention strategies; communicating project-level trade-offs of different intervention strategies and budget scenarios; and investigating how the intervention-planning activities of other networks could affect these estimates.
