The existing lack of knowledge and data about the current condition of the infrastructure as well as the implications for future renovation requirements makes long-term planning for water resources difficult. Lisa developed an approach for making the best of this inadequate knowledge and for supporting the decision-making process in long-term hydrological infrastructure planning. To achieve this she used stochastic modelling of damage occurring to water pipelines, coupled with multi-criteria decision analysis for developing maintenance strategies. As part of the process, she took into account the preferences of the stakeholders and tested the robustness of proposed alternatives against uncertain future scenarios. Most of the findings from Lisa’s dissertation are also transferable to infrastructure planning for sewerage systems.

The dissertation was undertaken as part of the SNF research project, NRP 61: “Sustainable Water Management”.