WERF/EPA-sponsored project INFR5R12 finalized with substantial results

Under the sponsorship of the Water Environment Research Foundation (WERF) and the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), project INFR5R12 "Visual Tool for Asset Management Performance, Risk and Cost Analysis" brought together GHD, LNEC, Addition and the Baseform development platform, in order to both test the current AWARE-P portfolio of tools in the US water utility context, and to develop new tools to specifically address the analysis of wastewater network failure risks. The program also aimed to provide integration of the AWARE-P IAM methods with WERF's SIMPLE framework.

The project has recently been successfully finalized, with the completion of all objectives. The AWARE-P IAM methodology and software have been comprehensively and successfully tested on Gwinnett County Department of Water Resources’ gravity sewer system. Selected key tools were also tested by US project team members not familiar with the software, using available data from a small-sized utility elsewhere in the US. This case has shown that the AWARE-P model is simple to apply even to small utilities' data.

New software modules have been developed, included notably a new Inspections Analysis tool and a new version (v2.0) of the IVI tool.The development and validation of the new inspections tool benefited from intense testing with large inspections and GIS databases from both the project pilot case and from another large US utility. Significant, leading-edge knowledge has been generated, particularly with regard to inspection data analysis and inspection strategies.