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An Analysis of the EPA Report on Pipeline Renewal Decision Making Tools and Approaches
Citation:
Matthews, J. C. AND A. Selvakumar. An Analysis of the EPA Report on Pipeline Renewal Decision Making Tools and Approaches. IN: Underground Infrastructure Management Magazine, Benjamin Media Inc (BMI), Peninsula, OH, (Dec. 6):,, (2013).
Impact/Purpose:
Decision support system (DSS) software for pipeline renewal has mostly focused on asset management to help owners and engineers decide on which portions of a system to prioritize for actions. These models do not typically determine whether to rehabilitate or replace a pipe or how to do it. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed this project to: (1) identify the current methods and tools being used for determining how to rehabilitate pipes; (2) identify gaps in current models through comparison to current utility practices; and (3) assess the feasibility of improving existing approaches. For more details, refer the full report (U.S. EPA, 2011).
Description:
Few DSS are commercially available for technology selection as most utilities make decisions based on in-house and consultant expertise (Matthews et al., 2011). This review presents some of the models proposed over the past 15 years for selecting technologies in the U.S. and worldwide. The models are divided into three groups: (I) wastewater collection; (II) water distribution; and (III) general (i.e., models used for both wastewater collection and water distribution). Each model was analyzed based on its ability to: process condition assessment data; consider multiple technologies; perform a technical evaluation for site-specific conditions; perform a cost analysis; and perform a method ranking.
