The influence of information quality on decision-making for networked infrastructure management

Operational decision processes for networked infrastructure management often occur as a multi-actor planning problem, implying these are partly based on negotiations between different stakeholders. The starting point for negation for each stakeholder is the available information about the structural condition of his infrastructure. In this respect, this leads to the question: ‘does more accurate data about actual structural condition lead to other or better decision-making?’ A serious game is introduced, ‘Maintenance in Motion’, aiming at investigating the influence of information quality about structural condition on replacement decisions, for single and multi-actor decision-making. Players are challenged to balance their individual goal, cost-effectiveness, with their team utility, increasing overall infrastructure quality to minimise failure while minimising overall public costs. Results show that if players are presented with perfect instead of imperfect information, in a single player environment, they played more cost-effectively. The availability of perfect instead of imperfect information about object state hardly changes game outcome in terms of team utility. It means collaborative choices for team utility are primarily based on negotiations that lead to compromises, instead of analytical reasoning as a group. This indicates that efforts in improving decision-making by improving information quality are only partly effective.     

A value-based design approach for base-isolated structural systems

The main assumption in seismic design procedures for structural systems is to provide the building with a high level of structural performance, subjected to earthquake loads. Such demand for higher performance needs additional investment on the project. In this work by taking into account the socio-economical aspects of the project, a value-based design approach is used to rationalise the structural design procedure in terms of initial investment. Determination of value design point in this approach is based on providing the optimality criterion from a global perspective. According to the results of this study, while for hospitals located in small cities with no substitute functionality in case of earthquake incident using base isolation for the structural system is quite necessary, for large cities, construction of fixed-base hospitals can still be permitted. The study also shows that, in the countries with higher growth rate, the required structural capacity to deal with earthquake demands in value-based design approach is lower than that required for low growth rate regions.     

Methodology and base cost models to determine the total benefits of preservation interventions on road sections in Switzerland

In Switzerland, it is common practice to estimate the total benefits of new roads before they have been built and of road improvement interventions before they have been performed. The guidelines with respect to standardised methodologies and models to be used have been developed (VSS 2003a VSS. 2003a. SN 641 820: Cost-benefit analysis in road traffic, Switzerland: Swiss Association of Road and Traffic Experts (VSS). Technical Committee 2: Planning and Development (in German) [Google Scholar]) and are now in use. It is not yet, however, common practice to estimate the total benefits of road preservation interventions and hence guidelines do not exist with respect to standardised methodologies and models to be used. In order to provide this information, the research package VSS 2004/710-716 was started. This paper presents the methodology and models proposed to be used to evaluate the total benefits of road preservation interventions in Switzerland based on the evaluation and synthesis of existing national and international literature on the relationships between pavement condition and benefits of road use conducted in project 714 of the research package. The use of the methodology and models are demonstrated by determining the optimal intervention strategy for a representative situation in Switzerland. The impact on the optimal intervention strategy of the consideration of multiple stakeholders is investigated.     

A holistic approach to asset management in the Netherlands

The objective of the national agency for road and water infrastructure in the Netherlands is to deliver best service to the public at lowest life cycle cost, given public acceptable risk. This requires a sound and well-structured system of management and maintenance. Such a system consists of elements such as reliable asset data, long-term performance based maintenance programmes, clear steering objectives and transparent procurement strategies. Asset management will make it possible to show what network performance can be achieved, at which costs and with which associated risks. A model defining an asset owner role, an asset manager role and a service provider role was chosen as a governing principle for the design of the asset management process. The design of the process described in the paper sets the boundary conditions to carry out projects with the minimum amount of hindrance for the user while involving the market in the best possible way.     

A dynamic programming approach for economic optimisation of lifetime-extending maintenance,renovation, and replacement of public infrastructure assets under differential inflation

In the next decades, many public infrastructure assets will reach the end of their life that they were originally designed for. Replacement costs are high, and therefore increasing effort is put into lifetime-extending maintenance, including major overhauls and renovations. A key question is whether the investments in lifetime-extending maintenance justify the postponement of a full replacement. This question becomes more complicated when future life cycle cash flows are non-repeatable. Differential inflation and technological change, including multiple intervention strategies to maintain a desired functionality, cause such non-repeatability. In this case, classic replacement analysis techniques will not suffice in answering this question. Literature demonstrates that case-specific modelling with dynamic or linear programming techniques is required to find economic optimisation. However, such literature primarily addresses replacement interval optimisation of new investments within relative short time horizons, whereas the current research develops a nested dynamic programming (DP) approach for typical ageing infrastructure assets over long service life periods. The model can deal with multiple and various successive intervention strategies and addresses differential inflation and age-related cost increases. Finally, it is shown in an infrastructure case study that this DP approach leads to a better decision in comparison to the application of classical replacement techniques.     

A multi-objective optimisation approach for sustainable pavement management

Addressing the multidimensional challenges involved in advancing the sustainability of pavement systems requires the development of optimisation-based decision support system (DSS) for pavement management with the capability to identify optimally sustainable pavement maintenance and rehabilitations (M&R) strategies. The main objective of this research work is to develop a multi-objective optimisation framework that hosts a comprehensive and integrated pavement life cycle costs–life cycle assessment model that covers the pavement’s whole life cycle, from the extraction and production of materials to construction and maintenance, transportation of materials, work-zone traffic management, usage and end-of-life. The capability of the proposed DSS is analysed in a case study aiming at investigating, from a full life cycle perspective, the extent to which a number of pavement engineering solutions are efficient in improving the environmental and economic aspects of pavement sustainability, when applied in the management of a road pavement section. Multiple bi-objective optimisation analyses considering accordingly agency costs, user costs and greenhouse gas emissions were conducted based on a multi-objective genetic algorithm. Pareto fronts were obtained for each analysis, originating a set of non-dominated maintenance and rehabilitation solutions. Posteriorly, a multi-criteria decision analysis method was used to find the best compromise solution for pavement management.     

A rational approach to the design of wastewater-fed fishponds

A procedure is given for the minimal treatment of wastewater in a 1-day anaerobic pond followed by a 5-day facultative pond prior to discharge into a fishpond. The criterion for the design of the fishpond is a surface loading of total nitrogen of 4 kg N ha⁻¹ d⁻¹. The number of faecal coliforms in the fishpond is then determined; this should be 1000 per 100 ml to ensure that the fish are microbiologically safe for human consumption. Fish (carp and tilapia) yields are of the order of 13 t ha⁻¹ a⁻¹, assuming that the pond is drained and harvested three times a year and that there is a fish loss of 25 percent. Preliminary financial analysis indicates that such a wastewater-fed fishpond system is commercially viable.     

Technological invention to product innovation: A project management approach

The optimal allocation of resources at the firm level to transform emergent technological invention into commercially successful products depends on the effective assessment and selection of projects. This study develops a multidisciplinary model for differentiating, prioritizing, and selecting investment in technological projects within an organization’s portfolio. Approaches from project portfolio and strategic technology management are integrated to explore how a particular product within a diverse project portfolio may be prioritized and developed. Our results suggest that the application of the suggested model to a portfolio of biotechnology projects may enhance the assessment of internal capabilities and external competitiveness, thereby providing a basis for firms to prioritize and preferentially allocate scarce resources within a portfolio of heterogeneous technologies.