Benchmark Performance Indicators for Utility Water and Wastewater Pipelines Infrastructure

Abstract

Over the past decade, many performance indicators have been developed for water utilities to track their system performance. This study proposes a set of normalized and time-integrated benchmarking performance indicators for sustainable long-term management of water distribution and wastewater collection networks. The benchmarking performance indicators are aggregated into three categories: (1) infrastructure, (2) sociopolitical, and (3) financial. To demonstrate the use and value of the benchmarking performance indicators, a system dynamics model is used to present a case study for three water utilities in southern Ontario, Canada. This study shows that the benchmarking performance indicators will allow water utilities with different attributes (such as number of customers, network pipe age profile, pipe material type, network size, and location) to benchmark the long-term variation in their performance with other utilities regionally and nationally. Furthermore, the benchmarking performance indicators can be used to forecast the future behavior of the system to ensure decision-making policies that will drive improvements and best practices.