Applied research for multi-scale asset management of the Walloon Water Company's drinking water supply network[Recherche appliquée pour la gestion patrimoniale multi-échelle du réseau d'adduction d'eau potable de la Société wallonne des Eaux]

The Wallon Water Company (SWDE) and the National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment (INRAE) joined forces from 2020 to 2023 to carry out the applied research project entitled ‘multi-scale asset management of drinking water networks' (GePaME). This scientific program is based on a service-performance driven water infrastructure asset management, mainly in terms of preservation of drinking water resources (control of water losses), continuity of service (control of network failures), quality of water, and service pressure. It adopts a multi-scale approach, which considers service performance from the local level (pipe segment) to the territorial level (District Metered Area (DMA), entire system) and from the short term (annual work programing) to the long term (investment strategy for the next decades). This requires being able to assess user vulnerabilities and knowing what elements of the network environment are affected by poor service performance. Furthermore, the methods and tools developed must take into account the operational organization and governance of the SWDE.