ISO 55000 as a tool to support planning and decision on sanitation solutions

Abstract

For the service provided by sanitation systems to be efficient and sustainable, ensuring that these assets are managed rationally and systematically in the organization may be provided through an infrastructure asset management (IAM) system (Alegre et al., 2010). The decision on sanitation solutions, such as between a conventional or non-conventional technical solution or from a decentralised or centralized solution, should be supported by an assessment system, allowing to compare the value added by such alternatives, over time, and to optimize the transition path from an existing system to a new one. The set of standards for asset management elaborated by the Technical Committee ISO/TC 251, (the ISO55000 series), took asset value as the starting point. Portugal participated actively in the elaboration of these standards, paying particular attention to its applicability to assets that constitute public infrastructures and that function as networked systems, as is the case of sanitation systems. The present article intends to highlight the potential of applying the ISO 55000 standards to sanitation systems, namely in a stage where innovative and out-of-the-box solutions are under consideration. Some implementation recommendations will be made to this business sector. Illustrative examples of the application to existing sanitation systems are provided."