Infrastructure Systems in Urban Water Management
Goals
In the environmental engineering practice an increasing demand for infrastructure management skills can be observed. This course gives an introductory overview of the infrastructure management skills needed for urban water infrastructures, with a specific focus on wastewater infrastructure.
After successfully finished the course, the participants will have the following skills and knowledge:
- They can perform basic engineering economic analysis
- Has an overview over the typical wastewater infrastructure of a community
- Knows the typical value and costs involved with running a wastewater infrastructure
- Knows the key principles of infrastructure management
- Knows the basics of a strategic planning tool for communities
Content
The urban drainage system is one of the major public works achievements in Switzerland of the last 100 years. For each person in Switzerland 135'000 L drinking water is produced and over 535'000 L rain- and wastewater is drained annually. These impressive services are done with a network of almost 200'000 km with an total replacement value of 30'000 CHF per capita.
The water services in Switzerland are moving from a phase of construction into one of optimization. The aim today should be to ensure that existing infrastructure is professionally maintained, to reduce costs and to ensure the implementation of more modern, improved technologies and approaches. These challenging tasks call for sound expertise and professional management.
This course gives an overview of the entire infrastructure of the water services and shows basic principles how to manage it professionally. The focus is primarily Switzerland, but most methods and conclusions are valid for many OECD countries.