Water Resources Research Act Program

Details for Project ID 2009HI242B

A decision support tool for managing the pipe network of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply

Institute: Hawaii
Year Established: 2009 Start Date: 2009-03-01 End Date: 2010-02-28
Total Federal Funds: $21,225 Total Non-Federal Funds: $34,154

Principal Investigators: V. Singh, Chittaranjan Ray

Project Summary: Asset management of public facilities is strongly recommended by the EPA and GAO to develop comprehensive asset management plans. At the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS), there is an apparent need to develop such a plan. BWS has encountered pipe breaks in recent times that have caused hardships. An asset management plan will help BWS optimize its spending for R&M and provide a high level of customer service. The project will examine the in-house decision tool currently used at BWS for strategizing pipeline replacement and then will improve on it. Parameters such as age of pipe, location, soil properties, pipe depth, pipe diameter, burst frequency, surge pressures, cost of replacement, and amount of funding available will be considered. Correlations will be sought among these different parameters. A scoring based prioritization system will be developed, and the application of operations research programs for arriving at optimal decision systems will be explored. Statistical risk analysis will be pursued to create decision support confidence zones and prepare estimates for reliability, availability, and probabilities of failure.