Grant: Engage Plus Grants Program

This is a continuation of Engage Project #508383-17 (End Date was 2017-12-31). Infrastructure Solutions Inc.*(ISI) is a Mississauga-based consulting and software development company providing asset management*solutions to Canadian municipal governments. Decision Optimization Technology (DOT) is a software*package developed by ISI with comprehensive database management and advanced analytical capabilities to*prioritize and optimize municipal infrastructure investments over a multi-year and multi-constraint planning*horizon. The company has successfully collaborated with Ryerson Institute for Infrastructure Innovation (RIII)*on an NSERC Engage project in developing deterioration models for municipal infrastructure systems.*Emphasizing on sewer pipes, the Engage project was considered a successful collaboration, and both ISI and*RIII believe that the collaboration should be further deepened to integrate the research outcomes into DOT. The*goal of this research project is to develop a risk-informed decision making framework and model to address*two major challenges of managing water systems. The first is the development of deterioration models to*capture physical deterioration trends in water system's linear assets with the ability for extension into other*asset types. The second is the development of an optimization framework for capital planning integrating*lifecycle cost analysis, risk analysis, effectiveness of maintenance and rehabilitation technologies, network*effects, cross-sectoral interactions among different assets, and strategies for asset inspection with dynamic*model updating. The enhanced version of the ISI product would better serve its municipal clients in managing*the lifecycle of their infrastructure assets, including prioritization and optimization in inspection, rehabilitation,*maintenance, and capital planning.