water

Article
Infrastructure Asset Management: Historic and Future
Perspective for Tools, Risk Assessment, and Digitalization for
Competence Building
Rita Ugarelli 1 and Sveinung Sægrov 2, *

1 SINTEF A.S., Institute Community, Department of Infrastructure, Børrestuveien 3, 0373 Oslo, Norway;
rita.ugarelli@sintef.no
2 Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Norwegian University of
Science and Technology (NTNU), S.P. Andersens vei 5, 7034 Trondheim, Norway
* Correspondence: sveinung.sagrov@ntnu.no

Abstract: This article aims at analyzing the historic development of infrastructure asset management
(IAM) resulting from the increase of challenges over time. Furthermore, it aims at suggesting the cor-
responding requirements for the enrichment of educational programs to provide the decision makers
of tomorrow with the right competences. The evolution of IAM is here described as characterized by
three periods introducing an increased complexity of analysis and thereby, a more powerful system
for urban water management: (a) Data collection and development of computerized information
systems including statistical methods for information management; (b) application of risk analysis
including sources of hazards and their consequences; and (c) introduction of a holistic sustainable
perspective including governance, social and economic aspects (circular economy), environmental
impacts, and the condition of physical assets including digital systems. A variety of competencies
are needed to obtain the safe management of urban water systems, in particular for the provision





 of water services in medium- and large-scale cities. Similar competencies are needed for other
Citation: Ugarelli, R.; Sægrov, S. infrastructures, like buildings, roads and railroads, and IT systems. The elements of sustainability
Infrastructure Asset Management: including risk assessment and digitalization should be incorporated in master programs for civil
Historic and Future Perspective for engineering world-wide. This paper is not designed as a scientific paper, but as inspirational for IAM
Tools, Risk Assessment, and practitioners and for the development of enriched educational programs of technical universities.
Digitalization for Competence
Building. Water 2022, 14, 1236. Keywords: education; infrastructure asset management; water; wastewater
https://doi.org/10.3390/w14081236

Academic Editor: Michael Richter

Received: 1 March 2022 1. Introduction

Accepted: 6 April 2022
The aim of this paper is to provide a high level, chronological review of IAM practice in
Published: 12 April 2022
water and wastewater industry and from that reflect on the educational requirements. The
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral authors expect this paper to be inspirational for IAM practitioners and for the development
with regard to jurisdictional claims in of enriched educational programs of technical universities.
published maps and institutional affil- The authors have been a part of this development over the last 40 years. The article is
iations.
based on personal observations supplemented by key literature.
Urban water infrastructure as water supply and wastewater collection provides essen-
tial services to the society but also represent high costs for maintenance and rehabilitation,
since they are exposed to a changing environment and deterioration of the assets.
Copyright: © 2022 by the authors.
Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Thus, the management of the urban water systems, and of the water cycle in general,
This article is an open access article
has been and is challenged by the evolution of requirements put by the external context,
distributed under the terms and which has progressed towards an increased complexity.
conditions of the Creative Commons In the past 50 years, infrastructure asset management (IAM) has become more strategic.
Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// However, IAM has existed for more than 100 years, when the first standardisation of
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ materials for water and wastewater took place. Later, several standards appeared with
4.0/).

Water 2022, 14, 1236. https://doi.org/10.3390/w14081236 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/water

Water 2022, 14, 1236 2 of 11

requirements for the manufacturing of pipes, strength of pipe materials and construction
methods, as well as technologies for testing of pipelines [1].
Systematic IAM dates back to the 1970s, when methods for rehabilitation planning
were introduced as a measure to understand the impact of wastewater systems to the
increasing pollution of water bodies [2]. The objective was to find an efficient way to rank
projects for upgrading wastewater networks and treatment systems to reach the goal of
water quality improvement. The methodology of rehabilitation planning was stepwise
improved in the following decenniums until the early 2000s.
In this period, IAM focused first on collecting asset data from which they could gather
information to support rehabilitation decisions and answer questions such as: What do we
have? Where is it? What condition is it in? How does it perform? In the mid 1980s, the
development of computerized information systems started in many countries and enabled
water utilities to systemize information of water and wastewater networks in a far more
systematic way than before when paper-based systems were applied.
Deterministic, regression, and statistical models to convert data into valuable informa-
tion populate the literature of this period [3]. The models, by providing information about
the system performance and changing structural conditions, aimed to guide and modify
responses, routines activities, procedures, and capital investments to prevent and predict
the occurrence of problems. However, in the process of testing and validating those models
in practice, it became clear that most water and wastewater utilities lacked accurate data
and, whenever available, the range of data to support this level of information was stored in
many forms, which is difficult to recover [4–7]. Applying reliability analysis or performance
analysis of the system without comprehensive asset databases gave misleading results as
models were run with highly approximated input.
Motivated by the need for upgrading the water distribution infrastructure in Europe,
CARE-W (Computer Aided Rehabilitation of Water Networks) was started in 2001 [8] with
the aim of integrating the available knowledge, modeling approaches, and overcoming
existing data limitations.
Still, besides the uncertainties of the results, due to incomplete datasets, condition
assessment and reliability studies’ results clearly showed that basing decisions on the ex-
pected probability of pipes to fail was not feasible, due to the computed higher investments
required than the available resources (money and human) could handle. Therefore, the
concept of risk came to the scene to combine the computed probability of failure with a
ranking factor, i.e., the eventual impact created by the failure, and therefore leading to
prioritizing interventions based on computed risk levels. So, approximatively between
2005 and 2010, IAM transitioned to focus on the risk of asset failure and making capital
investments to mitigate the risks and optimizing operations and maintenance activities. In
a risk management process, specifically at the step of risk analysis, the likelihood of a failure
and the consequences produced, if happening, have to be assessed. While the failures
relate to technical aspects for which analysis water engineers can feel confident about
(e.g., pipes’ collapses, breaks, blockages), the assessment of the consequences might relate
to a variety of dimensions and connected competences, e.g., social, economic, financial,
environmental, etc.
The practice of performing risk assessment highlighted the need for multidisciplinary
collaboration within the water organization, but also with external organizations or entities.
In this period, there is a transition to a more explicit attention to the service provided.
In December 2007, the ISO/TC 224 published the following standards [9–11]:
• ISO 24510, “Activities relating to drinking water and wastewater services—Guidelines
for the assessment and for the improvement of the service to users”.
• ISO 24511, “Activities relating to drinking water and wastewater services—Guidelines
for the management of wastewater utilities and for the assessment of wastewater services”.
• ISO 24512, “Activities relating to drinking water and wastewater services—Guidelines
for the management of drinking water utilities and for the assessment of drinking
water services”.
Water 2022, 14, 1236 3 of 11

The objective was to provide the relevant stakeholders with guidelines for assess-
ing and improving the service to users, and with guidance for managing the systems,
consistent with the overarching goals set by the relevant authorities. The standards were in-
tended to facilitate dialogue between the stakeholders, enabling them to develop a mutual
understanding of the functions and tasks that fall into the scope of water utilities.
Meantime, also the challenges to be handled in a decision process to produce master
and rehabilitation plans increased with the rise of technical challenges (e.g., related to
climate change impact, urban development, and ageing of infrastructure), social challenges
(e.g., higher customers service demands and new requirements for greener cities), envi-
ronmental challenges (e.g., more pressing directives), and tighter legislation and societal
pressure to reduce energy consumption and CO2 emission. So, while the deterioration of the
pipeline assets is still the obvious ‘frontline’ reason to adopt IAM practices, a more overarch-
ing driver is now the need to gravitate towards sustainable development and set short-term
and long-term objectives encompassing economic, social, and environmental goals.
These change drivers put pressure for a transition, or paradigm shift, in the traditional
management of the water sector, which, however, is conservative, complex, and fragmented.
In fact, although it became clear that IAM is not just about infrastructure assets, but
also about people, still major barriers exist to break through the silos of information
and expertise inside and outside the water utilities towards a crucial multi-stakeholder
collaboration being required.
The awareness and the identification of those barriers brought light to the idea that
successful and sustainable asset management requires active leadership, organizational
alignment, and coordination throughout all disciplines involved. This admission opened
the current IAM generation, which can be called total integration and which focuses on
new governance models able to support coordinated strategy; decision levels alignment;
and, thanks to the digital transformation, IT integration among sectors.
The evolution of modern IAM over time has therefore seen three major stages:
• A 1st Generation IAM focused on asset information (late 90s to approximately 2005).
• A 2nd Generation IAM focused on asset strategies through risk (approximately
2005–2010).
• A 3rd Generation IAM focus on total integration with emphasis on governance and
stakeholders’ involvement (2010–2021).
The three phases have to be seen as consecutive and as feeding each other in a
process of methodological development, while none of them has phased out, but together
characterize what IAM is today. The timeline adopted here is necessarily an approximation
between the time of research advancement and the time at which transitions are perceived
in practice. It is also worth saying that not all water utilities adopted IAM practices at
the same speed and therefore they might not recognize their evolution with the timeline
proposed here.
Educational programs thus should have mirrored the IAM evolution, adding more and
more complexity (in terms of multidimensional coverage) to cover the knowledge needs.
In practice, the educational programs’ requirements for students of urban water systems
have to move from purely technical to a multi-disciplinary curriculum supporting the new
generation of water experts in managing urban water as system where technology, economy,
environment, and society are connected. Unfortunately, it appears that many education
programs are still lagging and have the technical aspects as a core dimension. Furthermore,
also limiting the attention to the technical aspects, it seems the teaching program of the
new generation of engineers mainly focuses on providing the knowledge for the creation
of new water systems, rather than for the management of existing ones, therefore lacking
fundamental competences required as water professionals after the studying period, such as
reliability, condition-based maintenance, risk management, and sustainability assessment.
In the following sections, each generation of IAM is described in terms of focus
areas and adopted approaches, so to provide the background for the list of corresponding
educational needs introduced; an IAM curriculum should reflect all the competencies
Water 2022, 14, 1236 4 of 11

merged with time in order to include the management thinking and the technical solutions
that have resulted in the water and wastewater systems we currently deal with and to
understand their performance.

2. The 1st Generation of IAM and the Knowledge Requirements

The 1st Generation IAM focused on collecting asset information and data and, af-
ter some system developments, applying them into computerized maintenance manage-
ment systems.
The history of water networks rehabilitation leans on the so called re-active approach:
First the failure occurs, then the intervention comes. For decades, the systems have been
functioning with no routine maintenance at all. They are out of sight and only in the case
of evidence, the operator investigated the problem and carried out the necessary repair.
The traditional IAM strategies for intervention can be listed as:
• Operative—reactive
• Proactive—preventive
• Predictive—advanced
The list is given following the evolution in time of scientific knowledge on IAM
practice. Although in the first generation of IAM there was the belief that water utilities
should move from the reactive approach to the predictive approach, it is now clear that
none of the approaches are better or worse than the others, but each approach has its role
in the decision process in relation to the concept of related risk (second generation of IAM).
Also, proactive and preventive repair strategy for urban drainage systems is ideally more
cost-effective than the traditional approach of reactive maintenance, however, this depends
on an accurate understanding of the pipe condition to avoid premature rehabilitation: If
the asset is replaced too early, there is an economic loss, since the service life of the asset
has not expired. If the replacement of the asset is left too long, there is an economic loss
when additional externalities for emergency repairs occur.
The proactive and preventive approach utilizes reliability and condition-based ap-
proaches to assess the pipes most prone to failure. Some more advanced decision support
systems at the time also combined cost assessment to define the list of pipes to be prioritize
annually balancing costs and performances. However, applying those tools called for
investments in ‘knowing the system’, before attempting to decipher the via media.
Literature on rehabilitation planning for water distribution systems offers interesting
approaches presented in the past by several researchers. Shamir et al. [12], developed an
analytical approach to solve the pipe replacement problem. They expressed the pipe break
growth rate and hence the expected pipe break repair cost as an exponential function. The
replacement age of the pipe is that at which pipe replacement would minimize the present
value of the total cost (sum of the present values of replacement costs and repair costs),
which was obtained analytically.
Kleiner et al. [13–15] proposed an approach in which the network economics and
hydraulic capacity are analysed simultaneously over a pre-defined analysis period, while
explicitly considering the deterioration over time of both the structural integrity and the
hydraulic capacity of every pipe in the system.
The optimal age at which a pipe needs to be replaced is obtained on the basis of the
structural costs. The evaluation and selection of the rehabilitation alternatives are done
on the basis of structural and hydraulic conditions at different stages. The algorithm is
a heuristic technique based on partial enumeration and hence may not be able to easily
handle large networks.
Sægrov et al. [16] used statistical methods for estimating the current and future
rehabilitation needs and the use of software tools for prioritising rehabilitation actions in
water systems. The need for a proactive approach for rehabilitation planning is presented
in comparison to the reactive one. A framework for exploring the rehabilitation needs
and strategies is suggested. About 20 years ago, these authors brought, among others,
decision support systems on to the scene of water management in Europe. Two EU projects
Water 2022, 14, 1236 5 of 11

of the V Framework Programme dealing with decision support systems (DSS) for water
and wastewater managers, CARE-W and CARE-S [8] and [17], paved the way for IAM in
the European water sector. To support the application of a proactive approach, researchers
focused their attention on the identification of parameters to decide “what”, “where”, and
“how” to plan activities to improve the system’s performance. The software allows to select
and schedule the rehabilitation alternatives considering deterioration, hydraulic capacity,
and reliability of the network, but risk factors are not included.
Still, it has to be admitted that the debut of the DSSs in the European water agencies
was only a partial success.
The experience demonstrated that the availability of data was the first problem to
be addressed and the application of advanced management approaches was unfeasible
because of the lack of a long-term monitoring strategy. Applying reliability analysis or
performance analysis of the system without comprehensive asset databases gave misleading
results as models were run with highly approximated input. Results tended to disappoint
the expectations of water municipalities on the benefits of applying those data-intense
software [6,7].
It took some time before understanding that it was pointless to run complex ap-
proaches without spending the right time on data screening and collection, or that not
all the available software could be applied by all users according to the availability of
data. Two different solutions were performed in two different case studies: In one case
we directly drove the necessary data collection, cleaning the data and also collecting data
on the field when the municipality could not provide resources to do it; in the other case,
we evaluated the actual availability of data and according to the dataset provided by the
utility, such as failure data and hydraulic model results, a simple and practical methodology
was developed using only the tools that could provide a feasible analysis of the network
vulnerability [6,7]. In the first case, the data collection itself took 2 of the 3 years of the
project, in the second case, very few aspects of asset performance could be analysed, but in
both cases the results finally could be assumed as reliable and increased the interest of the
utility for further collaboration in adopting DSSs.
The one described is only an example referred to as a specific experience, but average
situations encountered by testing the DSS in other European case studies did not perform
any better.
Most water and wastewater utilities lacked accurate information not only on the
assets, but also on the characterization of cost, and whenever available, the range of data to
support this level of information was stored in many forms, which is difficult to recover [7].
The collection of data has an economic dimension. In [18], the authors proposed a
methodology for assessing the cost–benefit relationship between data collection and data
utilisation for IAM tools. In this methodology, the costs were expressed as the work hours
invested in collecting the data, while the benefits were expressed as informational outcomes.
DSSs, when data are available, provide the utilities with a rational framework to
plan future investments, taking into consideration the condition assessment, performance
targets, and investment impact of alternative solutions/strategies.
Lessons learnt from the 1st generation of IAM to enrich educational programs:
The development of the first generation IAM revealed that competences are needed
for a number of topics that therefore should be incorporated in educational programs of
IAM, including:
• Hydraulic models of water and wastewater networks that can be used for the analysis
of system reliability.
• Methods for monitoring the network’s performance and pipe condition, including:
leak detection (water), CCTV inspection (wastewater), flow measurements, pipe sam-
ples, registration of failures from repairs, and previous rehabilitation projects.
• Statistical tools to analyse the information reveal large-scale trends and predict future
conditions and rehabilitation needs.
Water 2022, 14, 1236 6 of 11

• Data analysis techniques to balance between data quality and quantity. Often, as
described above, data available might not be sufficient to perform reliable analysis,
therefore, it is necessary to define a trade-off between data availability and tools data
requirements and eventually select different analysis techniques based on the data
at hand.

3. The 2nd Generation of IAM and the Knowledge Requirements Incorporating the
Risk Dimension
The 2nd generation of IAM focused on asset strategies through the introduction of risk.
At this stage, risk-based DSSs come into the scene. A natural follow up to the CARE-W
and CARE-S DSSs, is the innovative project AWARE-P, an open-source, professional-
grade computer application, offering decision support tools at the three decision levels of
strategic, tactical, and operational, which incorporates risk as a metric to be balanced with
performance and costs to drive rehabilitation decisions [19].
A reference standard to develop these approaches was the Risk Management Process-
ISO 31000:2009 [20]. The risk management process includes the steps of “establishing
the context”, “risk identification”, “risk analysis”, “risk evaluation”, and “risk treatment”.
Aligned with this standard, risk assessment includes the steps of risk event identification,
analysis, and evaluation. Once the risk events are identified, in the risk analysis both
likelihood and impacts of the events are evaluated.
The assessment of the likelihood and consequences for each event, and the following
estimation of the level of risk for each event, help to compare events and to prioritize those
at higher risk.
To screen priority risks, simpler methods (e.g., likelihood-consequence matrix) are
often used, and further on, for priority problems, more detailed methods (e.g., quantitative
risk analysis) could be applied. In the risk-based decision support systems for IAM, the
aim is to combine the probability of the failure of technical functions of an asset with the
derived consequence. The consequence describes the outcome of an event in terms of
potential impact created. Each event can have one probability happen, but it can produce
consequences in multiple dimensions (e.g., economic, social, environmental, etc.).
Furthermore, selecting the most appropriate risk reduction measures (RRM), which is
part of the risk treatment step, should be carried out using appropriate criteria to balance
the costs and efforts of implementation against the benefits derived. Aspects to consider in
the assessment of each RRM are: level of risk to be controlled; effectiveness (achievement
of the desired reduction in risk); efficiency (achievement of the desired effect with least
resource consumption); sustainability; cost of implementation; side effects (e.g., some RRM
may create secondary risks); legal and regulatory viability; acceptability by stakeholders
and by the public; and protection of the environment. After comparison, RRM alternatives
must be prioritised using the selected criteria and a decision must be made on which RRM
to implement. The step of risk treatment is supported by the use of cost–benefit analysis or
multi-criteria-decision-analysis [21].
Assessing consequences for multiple dimensions in the step of risk analysis and
selecting RRMs in the step of risk treatment, called for the need of new competences, not
limited to technical ones anymore, and of multi-disciplinary collaboration (e.g., economy,
social and environmental science).
It is in the period of the second generation of IAM that a comprehensive preventive
risk management approach for ensuring drinking-water quality is made available to water
operators in the form of guidelines: the Water Safety Plan [22]. The IAM risk-based DSS
developed in this period are also inspired by the need to support the implementation of
the Water Safety Plan, as the EU project TECHNEAU [23,24]. Afterwards, the authors
in [25] present the challenges faced by the water utilities to provide safe, secure, and
reliable service to meet also the Water Framework Directives 2000/60/EC, in addition to
the water safety plan. The analysis approach presented follows standard methodology for
risk and vulnerability. In order to structure the analysis, the system is split into the various
Water 2022, 14, 1236 7 of 11

water cycle components. For each of these components, hazards and threats are identified;
probability and consequences assessed; and finally, the total risk picture presented.
Factors influencing the rehabilitation decision during and after the second generation are:
• Assets structural condition
• Network reliability
• Impact assessment
• Risk assessment
Lessons learnt from the 2nd generation of IAM to enrich educational programs:
The development of the second generation of IAM revealed that, in addition to the
competences introduced by the first generation, educational programs of IAM should
include risk-related competence covering:
• Qualitative and quantitative methods for risk analysis, like preliminary hazard analy-
sis, HAZOP, fault tree analysis, and event tree analysis.
• Consequence analysis.
• Data sources and uncertainties.
• Knowledge about standards, and guidelines.
• Cost/benefit and MCD analysis.
Furthermore, the programs have to provide the ability to analyze the system as a
complex one, not limited to the pipelines hydraulic and structural performances, but also
looking at multiple dimensions of impacts and assessment criteria.

4. The 3rd Generation of IAM and the Knowledge Requirements for the Transition
towards a Sustainable Urban Water System
With the start of the 3rd generation, it is clear that behind the definition of what IAM
is, there is the need for a global set of systematic, aligned, and coordinated strategies
to identify and optimally manage the physical assets to meet more stringent and global
requirements at the system and even city serviceability level. To make the adoption of IAM
practice successful IAM, there is the requirement of an organisational plan that involves
the whole company at the tactical-operational and strategic level and that needs to be set
up from both the bottom-up and top-down level [26,27].
This sums up to the principles of establishing good governance within an organization.
The governance includes the organisation’s human resources and their training, to enable
the use of information systems and engineering principles. Good governance was at the
core of the EU program TRUST (TRansformation to sustainable Urban water Systems of
To-morrow) [28] and is subject to a thorough discussion in several papers conducted by
Katko and Hukka, et al. [29–32].
The transition to more sustainable urban water services requires a couple of elements.
First, it requires a clear understanding of how sustainability of urban water services
can be defined and assessed. Second, it requires detailed strategic planning involving
several steps, such as diagnosis (where are we now?), vision (where do we want to go?),
analysis (what is needed to get there?), technology & management options (what can be
done?), prediction (what happens if?), decision-support (which option is the best one?),
and finally the acceptance by decision-makers and stakeholders. TRUST developed a
portfolio of solutions, tools, guidelines, software, and training material for all of these
steps and demonstrated their feasibility and usability in 10 participating city utilities across
Europe [28].
As sustainable development came into the core of the IAM around 2010, governance
responsibilities of the operation and development of urban water systems were introduced
besides the environmental, social, economic, and technical dimensions, which are already
covered by risk assessment studies. As one of the first steps, a definition and a compre-
hensive assessment framework for sustainability assessment of urban water services were
developed, including the above-mentioned five main dimensions of sustainability and
subsequent criteria and measurement options for sustainability [33].
Water 2022, 14, 1236 8 of 11

Currently, the impact of climate change presents a major challenge to urban water
systems; IAM supporting tools, analysis, and approaches have been tuned to address
climate change impact and adaptation as major drivers. The topic has been extensively
handled in several large-scale European projects lately, e.g., PREPARED (2010–2014, [28])
and BINGO (2015–2019, [34]). We now have access to knowledge and a set of tools (climate
prognosis, risk assessment, and planning) tailored to climate change adaptation as an
integrated part of IAM.
Lately, the digital revolution has revealed new opportunities when it comes to smart
(optimized) operation of urban water systems and improved understanding of performance
(through machine learning tools, artificial intelligence solutions, augmented and virtual
reality, and digital twins). The digital transformation has somehow just started, but more
and more water utilities are applying data science and augmented intelligence techniques to
business problems; the virtual representation (Digital Twins) of the water system will enable
situational awareness and near-real-time monitoring, which has great potential to solve
many of the challenges faced by the industry, towards a smarter use of water resources
grounded on the concepts of circular economy. Guiding water utilities at developing
strategic agendas to meet the vision of a water-smart society is the aim of recent H2020
projects, which is financed through the Horizon 2020 call “Building a water-smart economy
and society” and was started in 2020:
• ULTIMATE—indUstry water-utiLiTy symbIosis for a sMarter wATer society.
• B-WaterSmart—Accelerating Water Smartness in Coastal Europe.
• WIDER UPTAKE—Achieving wider uptake of water-smart solutions.
• WATER-MINING—Next generation water-smart management systems: large scale
demonstrations for a circular economy and society.
• REWAISE- REsilient WAter Innovation for Smart Economy.
It is expected that further educational needs and educational content will be provided
by the research performed by these projects in the years to come.
However, the process of digitalization calls for the creation of new digital skills that
integrate at once the water sector traditional knowledge on the physical assets with the
ICT expertise. Furthermore, the digital transformation also leads to a more vulnerable
system, and reinforced protection of the water and wastewater services is required. This
has been handled in an extensive EU project STOP-IT (2017–2021), where a number of
measures for water critical infrastructure protection against cyber and physical threats is
demonstrated [35].
As for today, research and development in the scientific community is making progress
with maturing secure digital twins in cyber-physical systems (e.g., by the H2020 projects
Digital Water City and Aqua3S). This leads to interdisciplinary cooperation and new
business models.
Lessons learnt from the 3rd generation of IAM to enrich educational programs:
In the third generation of IAM, water utilities are incorporating sustainability, resource
efficiency, resilience, circular economy, and continual improvement principles into their
practices, and at the same time, are entering the path of digital transformation.
New competences are required within digital solutions and the social, economic, envi-
ronmental, asset, and governance domains, and their interaction within holistic thinking
of sustainability and circular economy. In addition, the vulnerability introduced by new
digital solutions needs to be understood and skills to counteract cyberattacks need to
be enhanced. Furthermore, soft skills for effective communication and collaboration are
requested, as well as the ability to simultaneously hold a concrete technical and operational
mindset. EU projects like TRUST, BINGO, and STOP-IT, to name a few, have provided
a number of tools and methods for sustainable transformation of the water systems as
well as participation of stakeholders. An assembly of those tools should be included in a
training curriculum.
Water 2022, 14, 1236 9 of 11

5. Discussion
The legal requirements have increased significantly during the IAM history, introduc-
ing more strict objectives of public health and environmental impact as well as concepts like
sustainability and circular economy. To cope with a steadily more demanding environment,
the IAM has become more complex, adding a magnitude of new tools developed in the
research community to obtain good governance and good management.
As a general picture, the tools until now have only to a small degree been imple-
mented for urban water systems. Thus, information and training of water utility staff
members should be a high priority worldwide in the years to come, starting from enriched
educational modules within the universities’ curricula.
The development in the urban water sector is not unique but has parallels in other
building and infrastructure sectors. Similar competencies are needed for other infrastruc-
tures, like buildings, roads and railroads, and cyber systems.
Until now, IAM and the underlying approaches have not been a part of civil engi-
neering education. There is an urgent need to introduce principles as risk, sustainability,
circular economy, and digitalization, as well as principles and tools for integrated asset
management in civil engineering education programs.

6. Conclusions
The authors have made a journey in time to describe the evolution of IAM and
matching those steps with educational needs. Each development step of IAM has brought
new approaches and methods leading to the need for new competences to be presented to
the decision makers of tomorrow. Each IAM phase feeds the next, therefore contributing
to the overall opportunities that IAM, as a methodological, analysis, and organizational
process, provides today. None of the phases have to be considered as having ended, but as
part of the incremental approach, and as such, each phase brings its contribution to the list
of competences required.
IAM is generally spoken of as a systematic way of assessing the urban water systems
in light of legal requirements with the aim to identify weak spots that need upgrading.
We are now on the threshold of the common use of advanced planning and decision-
making tools for integrated asset management. To ensure the process, a comprehensive
review of the education programs of the practitioners and the civil engineers of tomorrow
is urgent.
Knowledge has been the core of IAM since the first standard in 1913. Learning over
100 years has brought the IAM forward to the advanced practice of today at the forefront
water utilities. In future, we should expect this practice to spread and reach general
acknowledgement. This may safeguard the water and wastewater services and contribute
to a better environment achieved at a lower cost.

Author Contributions: Conceptualization, R.U. and S.S.; writing—original draft preparation, R.U.;
writing—review and editing, R.U. and S.S. All authors have read and agreed to the published version
of the manuscript.
Funding: This paper received no funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applicable.
Informed Consent Statement: Not applicable.
Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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