The Asset Management Project
A project to advance stormwater asset management conceptual knowledge & to develop new tools to optimize data collection & implementation.
Overview
The Need
A recent survey of GSI practitioners undertaken by the Exchange in partnership with project partners, HDR and Arcadis, revealed the following challenges:
- PRACTITIONER PREPAREDNESS. Practitioners report having pressing needs for technical information and resources on asset management, and these have ranked highly in repeated iterations of the Water Environment Federation’s biannual MS4 Needs Assessment Survey.
- DATA COLLECTION. The collection of critical maintenance and performance data is neither systematic nor consistent. In our survey, fewer than 40% of respondents reported having metrics and standard operating procedures (SOPs) that are developed and documented. There was also wide variability in asset inventory documentation, with fewer than half reporting comprehensive documentation practices. The latest Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, underscored these challenges, finding that “[d]ata – publicly available, routine and reliable — should be standard … to target investments and allow decisionmakers to wisely allocate limited funding to needs.
- IMPLEMENTATION OPTIMIZATION. The implementation of GSI has accelerated in the absence of standard tools for optimizing the mix of green, gray and natural infrastructure. The latest Report Card sites a need to “mainstream tools for data-driven decision-making, such as asset management software [and] life-cycle cost analysis.”
More Details
Scope of Work
The project team of the Exchange, HDR and Arcadis seeks to raise $40,000 from industry partners as a match for a Water Research Foundation grant to advance the following scope of work:
- GAP ANALYSIS. Use survey and literature search results to determine the current state of the industry, delineating gaps in content covered by the Exchange’s 2021 GSI Asset Management Resources Toolkit.
- TOOL DEVELOPMENT. Develop the tools, checklists, approaches and related data needed to address the identified gaps.
- FRAMEWORK DEVELOPMENT. Develop a standardized framework and approach to holistic stormwater asset management.
- PRODUCT REFINEMENT. Share results among partners in a learning forum and finalize guidance.
- PRODUCT MARKETING. Develop and implement a plan for sharing the final product with the industry.
The Ask
Partnership Case
The case for signing on as a partner is as follows:
- The needs are pressing. The needs related to practitioner preparedness, data collection and implementation optimization are real and growing more acute with every passing year.
- There is momentum. The Exchange, Arcadis and HDR have taken the initial step in the project, conducting a practitioner survey and reviewing similar data on the current state of stormwater asset management.
- A modest investment can drive a massive transformation. We believe a modest investment of time and capital from a handful of leading organizations will get this project over the finish line, leading to a huge transformation in the way stormwater assets are currently managed.
