WEB-BASED AND GEOSPATIALLY ENABLED TOOL FOR WATER AND WASTEWATER PIPELINE INFRASTRUCTURE RISK MANAGEMENT

Advanced pipeline risk management is contingent on accurately locating the buried pipelines, the milieu, and also the physical condition of the pipelines. The web-based and geospatially enabled tool presented in this thesis provides an improved way to assess the risks associated with the failure of water and wastewater pipelines. This thesis focuses on the development of a web-based and geospatially enabled tool and a network level risk model for the quantitative risk assessment of water and wastewater pipelines by taking into account the likelihood and consequence of pipeline failure. The parameters used in the risk model are evaluated by water and wastewater utility asset managers in the United States, and derived by GIS using advanced geospatial tools. A web-based and geospatially enabled proof of concept is developed as a tool for utilities to access the risk model results for the water and wastewater pipelines. An exclusive working environment will be provided for each utility with access to their respective data and risk model results. Also, this is a risk model for strategic infrastructure risk management, and it is to be used for asset allocation, financial planning, and determining condition assessment methods on a network level.