What percentage of your organisation’s underground assets are mapped and on an asset register? 

If you think it’s less than 100%, you’re not alone; according to Kirk Bloomfield, Manager at GSDS and presenter at IPWEA’s upcoming Stormwater Drainage Condition Assessment and Asset Performance workshops, an organisation’s asset register will typically only be around 80% accurate. 

That 20% of unmapped, or wrongly recorded assets can create a host of problems.

“It creates issues around risk mitigation, planning and responding to problems in a timely way,” Bloomfield says. “An accurate asset database means you can get your depreciation right, and budget correctly for remediation and maintenance works.”  

“If you don’t know what you have, then it’s very hard to manage effectively. It’s not uncommon to go out into the field and find 100+ meters of pipe in a day that has not been recorded in the asset register, that’s been sitting there for 50 years - and that has a tangible maintenance cost associated with it.”

Bloomfield says the answer is to have a reliable register of underground assets, and the creation of a ‘single point of truth’ for drainage data.

 “A lot of field projects involve selecting random assets to go have a look at, which is a great thing to do, but when you come to mapping and inventory, you often end up with a puzzle that is never really completed” he says.

Having up-to-date and reliable data on the condition of those assets is also essential.

“Data is a fantastic tool to communicate to your superiors what kind of funding you need,” Bloomfield says. “If you can take hotspot maps, and graphic video evidence of pipes that are going to collapse to your superiors and say ‘We need more money now’, it’s a lot more powerful than asking for budget for anticipated, and less visible issues.”

Bloomfield says that while most councils will already have GIS mapping and asset management systems, many are still developing solutions, and may not be using them to their best effect yet. 

The Stormwater Drainage Condition Assessment and Asset Performance workshops will address this, giving practitioners the tools to confidently update a stormwater drainage asset register, develop reports on the overall condition grading and understand how to use the new Practice Note 5 to improve SWD asset management practice.

The Stormwater Drainage Condition Assessment Workshops will be held: 

Sydney – Mon, 17 Oct
Melbourne – Tues, 18 Oct
Launceston – Wed, 19 Oct
Adelaide – Fri, 21 Oct
Brisbane – Mon, 24 Oct

Contact IPWEA directly about our in-house training options.