A data warehouse-based decision support system for sewer infrastructure management

Since the inception of the Governmental Accounting Standards Board statement-34 (GASB 34) in the United States, local and state governing entities need to inspect sewer systems and collect general information about their properties. Application of the collected information in decision-making processes, however, is often problematic due to the lack of consistency and completeness of infrastructure data. In addition, most techniques involved in decision-making processes are relatively complicated and difficult to implement without a certain level of engineering experience and training. Consequently, the sharing and transferring of pertinent information among stakeholders is not smooth and is frequently limited. This study presents a decision support system (DSS) for the management of sewer infrastructure using data warehousing technology. The proposed decision support system automatically assigns appropriate inspection and renewal methods for each pipeline and estimates associated costs, resulting in effective and practical sewer infrastructure management from various perspectives, with corresponding levels of detail.