Risk and Opportunity in Upgrading the U.S. Drinking Water Infrastructure System

This paper presents a generic risk assessment methodology to provide the drinking water infrastructure decision-maker with an objective risk assessment tool for maintaining a desired level-of-service while managing the expected capital improvement program budgetary impact. The expected capital improvement program budgetary outcome is based on the decisionmaker’s sensitivity to risk as represented by the system’s reinvestment rate and level of scheduled maintenance activity costs. The results demonstrate that by proactively monitoring the risk of the drinking water infrastructure system level-of-service through an adequate reinvestment rate will effectively manage capital improvement program budgetary compliance. The conclusions of the paper reveal that developing a risk-avoidance position through a proactive asset management strategy can have a positive affect on the capital improvement program budget.