Modeling Management Strategies to Optimize Expenditure and Investment Programs

A key challenge faced by utilities in managing their infrastructure is the need to confidently
determine short and long term asset investment requirements without getting buried in the detail
or waylaid by the poor quality of data, for thousands of individual assets. The paper will discuss
an approach using management strategies to simplify the management effort, appropriately
model short and long term future investment needs for all assets, result in improved confidence
in the quality and confidence of the analysis, – even in situations of limited data – and enhance
improved capital improvement program programming. It presents the benefits, implications, and
applicability of using management strategies as described by the implementation for the City of
Portland Water Bureau on the development of their future investment needs.