Client-driven performance-evaluation framework for municipal infrastructure

Abstract

Condition assessment of aging infrastructure is a growing concern all over the world. A systematic performance assessment is a pre-requisite for effective asset and infrastructure management. Accordingly, this article develops an integrated approach for the performance assessment of the municipal infrastructure. The main objectives are to develop an approach to assess, measure, and combine the performance levels of water, sewer, and road infrastructure and then integrate those values into a performance index. The methodology involves developing assessment criteria from literature and using interviews with professionals. A series of workshops was conducted with professionals in Canada. Throughout the workshops, questionnaires were collected based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) technique. Using AHP and fuzzy set theory, data was aggregated, and the results were developed. The analysis proved that the road roughness rating has the highest impact on the performance level followed by the number of breaks that occurred within the water network. Furthermore, the developed integration model was validated by professional engineers working in the field and has shown potential in terms of providing a reliable assessment of the overall state of the infrastructure.