System Dynamics in Water/Wastewater Mgmt and Sewer Rehab

[ijamal@gov.edmonton.ab.ca (Iqbal]

As part of an overall fiscal impact model of the City of Edmontons
infrastructure, weve built a system dynamics model (using Vensim) that
accounts for the stock of various assets and the impact of population,
assessment base and other revenues on the need for funding of new
ehab
assets. Our focus has been to assess the impact of a transportation
plan (transit, roads, etc) on the demand for funds by other services.
Weve accounted for the age and lifecycle of assets, costing (new and
rehab), standards, and revenue/expeditures that affect the demand and
distribution of municipal revenues. Our focus was mainly on services
that required a large draw on tax levy.

For the sewer system (2500 km) we were able to generate some ball park
estimates of the funding required for new and rehab needs, as well
estimates of the impact on the overall "infrastructure gap" for all
other municipal services.

We had started to look at the wastewater treatment facilities, but did
not complete as it is run as a self funding utility, with minimal impact
on tax levy

Iqbal Jamal
ijamal@gov.edmonton.ab.ca

[jm62004@Jetson.UH.EDU]

Dear Friends,

Please respond if you have any info on system dynamics applications in
water/wastewater management and/or in sewer rehabilitation area. Looking
(of course, this is a SD list!) not at hydraulic engineering models, but at
policy analysis SD models, preferably with socio-political dynamics
included. I am working on an NSF grant looking at the civil infrastructure
(wastewater system) in the Greater Houston area (5600 miles of underground
network spread over 600 square miles serving 4 million people). Results of
this could be useful to other cities too.

I would especially request info from people in Europe (France, UK), where
presumably the wastewater systems are much older than in the USA, and where
they have already dealt with some of the problems plaguing US cities now
(sewage overflow etc.).

Thank you for any information,

Regards,

Jaideep
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jm62004@Jetson.UH.EDU
Jaideep Mukherjee, Ph. D.
Research Associate
Department of Industrial Engineering
University of Houston
4800 Calhoun Road
Houston, TX 77204-4812

Phone: 713 743 4181; Fax: 713 743 4190
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