Open Access

This chapter covers the legal framework and technical regulations that must or should be observed for the strategic asset management (AM) of urban drainage systems over the entire life cycle (planning, construction, maintenance, and dismantling). A distinction is made between rules and regulations that deal with network management in general (strategic level) and rules and regulations that address the management of individual network components and/or certain activities (e.g., CCTV-inspection and condition assessment of reaches or stormwater basins). These activities are subsumed under ‘operative level’. It should be noted that both the legal framework and the applicable technical regulations vary widely from region to region. In some cases, different regulations apply even in different provinces or federal states of a country. Against this background, only case studies can (such as regulations that apply to Germany, France, Colombia or Canada) and will be presented in this chapter. It is thus made clear that AM in the sense of ISO 55000 to 55002 (AM) enables a structured approach to a multi-layered field of tasks. In this way, goals and conflicting goals can be identified and prioritized at various levels and, in conjunction with the continuous improvement process in accordance with ISO 9000 and 9001 (Quality Management Systems), efficient ways can be found to achieve these goals.

Different analytical approaches exist to describe the structural substance or wear reserve of sewer systems. The aim is to convert engineering assessments of often complex defect patterns into computational algorithms and determine a substance class for a sewer section or manhole. This analytically determined information is essential for strategic rehabilitation planning processes up to network level, as it corresponds to the most appropriate rehabilitation type and can thus provide decision-making support. Current calculation methods differ clearly from each other in parts, so that substance classes determined by the different approaches are only partially comparable with each other. The objective of the German R&D cooperation project ‘SubKanS’ is to develop a methodology for classifying the specific defect patterns resulting from the interaction of all the individual defects, and their severities and locations. The methodology takes into account the structural substance of sewer sections and manholes, based on real data and theoretical considerations analogous to the condition classification of individual defects. The result is a catalogue of defect patterns and characteristics, as well as associated structural substance classifications of sewer systems (substance classes). The methodology for sewer system substance classification is developed so that the classification of individual defects can be transferred into a substance class of the sewer section or manhole, eventually taking into account further information (e.g. pipe material, nominal diameter, etc.). The result is a validated methodology for automated sewer system substance classification.