Infrastructure maintenance policy analysis including risk and uncertainty | |
| Author | Chakrit Suwannachote |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no.TE-02-02 |
| Subject(s) | Transportation and state Infrastructure (Economics) Maintenance |
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Infrastructures are physical facilities or systems that are used by the public. There are many basic types of infrastructure that have significant impact on human lives, such as roads, bridges, railroads, dams, parklands, and wastewater treatment. As population increases with time, people's needs also increase. People in almost all regions place high importance on good and safe infrastructures that can satisfy their needs in all circumstances. Therefore, government agencies or private companies that are responsible for managing the infrastructures need to make effective use of the maintenance budget in order to be able to keep the infrastructure at the desired condition as long as possible. Maintenance policy analysis is considered one of the most crucial element in infrastructure management since it governs all the interactions of related maintenance activities. Many agencies set their maintenance policy according to infrastructure characteristics, available budget, law and regulations, organization structure, and public acceptance. However, since the current decision-making process is carried out by considering only the expected benefits of each maintenance policy, the decision makers may still be exposing the infrastructure and its users to significant risk and uncertainty by unwittingly selecting a risky maintenance policy that could give them lower benefits, in the end, due to high uncertainty, than could another maintenance policy. To address this problem, a framework is developed for infrastructure maintenance policy analysis that incorporates risk and uncertainty. The basic components of this framework are identified by the following five main processes and subprocesses developed from expert opinions, relevant literatures, and practice guidelines: (1) asset data collection; (2) condition assessment and procedures; (3) data analysis; (4) policy setting and analysis and (5) network-and project-level management. Incorporating risk analysis by considering the input variables in the form of probability distribution functions, risk-based maintenance policy analysis can help agencies determine the optimal maintenance management that is targeted towards maximizing the benefits under risk control. The interactions of the recommended processes and subprocesses of the developed framework, which considers risk and uncertainty, are investigated through case studies. |
| Year | 2003 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Engineering and Technology (SET) |
| Department | Department of Civil and Infrastucture Engineering (DCIE) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Transportation Engineering (TE) |
| Chairperson(s) | Pannapa Herabat; |
| Examination Committee(s) | Sano, Kazushi ;Chotchai Charoenngam; |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | H.M. King's Scholarship for Education of Asia; |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2003 |