When you think about the challenges to our infrastructure asset management that are likely to appear in the future, what comes to mind? Growing populations? A lack of long-term planning? The need for changing skill-sets? 

For the upcoming edition of inspire magazine we spoke to the NAMS Consultant Supporters, a group of leading consultants that support and further the goals of the NAMS.AU Council, about the state of asset management in Australia, the challenges putting our infrastructure under pressure and the future of the asset management profession.

One of the questions posed to the group was: what asset management issues will confront federal, state, and local governments during the next decade?

Despite the variety of views expressed, there were some common themes running through the discussion. The need for long-term infrastructure planning, population growth in our cities and the changing technology landscape were all top of the consultants' minds.

Here's what they had to say: 

Aneurin Hughes, Senior Principal and Discipline Leader Asset Management, Cardno
“Overcrowding in our large cities. There’s huge growth in Sydney, Melbourne and Southeast Queensland. We’ve got infrastructure that’s already unable to cope and huge congestion. There is a lack of investment in public transport. Delivering infrastructure in larger cities can be very expensive and it takes a very long time to go through the consultation and approvals processes.”

Tim McCarthy, Director, Morrison Low
“The biggest challenge is dealing with increasing population and the change in demographics. We have councils in Sydney who have been given $300 million in assets to manage over the next five to 10 years’ time, and it’s placed an incredible burden on them. You can’t necessarily increase the capacity of assets like the road transport network; there needs to be a greater focus on strategies to manage the demand and function of those assets. What we’re seeing for rural councils is the declining population, an increasing desire or demand for better assets, and a falling income base, which is making it incredibly difficult for them to maintain the standards in the assets they manage.”

Nandini Mehta, Manager, AUS-SPEC
“Digital transformation and the way we will be doing things in the future. The community expectation is way too high – everyone wants things quickly. Every council has an asset inventory and they collect data, but once the data is collected, the data needs to be processed. They need to know what exactly they need to do with the collected data. Once they have their conditional assessment data, they need to rectify the defects and maintain their assets. In the long-term, with population growth and climate change, it’s going to put more pressure on the existing infrastructure assets, both in metro and in regional councils.”

Andrew Thomas, Senior Consultant, Asset Management, Aurecon
“What concerns me is this short-term culture. Asset management by its nature is a long-term game, and if we’re going to come to terms with asset management on the scale that we’re talking about then there needs to be a shift away from that short-term thinking and a realisation that the long-term does actually matter.”

Michael Courtney, Managing Director, CT Management Group
“One of the big issues is going to be skills shortages within councils, not only from a technical asset management point of view but also in regard to negotiating with communities and guiding people through comparative choices. That’s really where I think the big shortfall is going to be. We can’t have it all and that’s going to be the reality going forward.”

Steve Verity, Strategic Asset Management Consultant, TechnologyOne
“We are seeing little evidence of government at all levels taking long-term infrastructure planning seriously. Infrastructure will need to adapt and meet an evolving world. Artificial intelligence, changing lifestyles and jobs, adaptive technologies – it’s all happening here and now. Most asset intensive organisations tend to take a siloed approach to managing infrastructure due to fragmented systems and the underlying data and processes that provide decision support. There is a huge risk with the continued temptation for decision makers to react in an environment when there is at times little to no evidence-based assessment driven by an overarching plan by all levels of government.”

Travis Gilbertson, Technical Director Asset Management, WSP
“Having the right skills and capability in asset management to address our future asset management needs. We need to recognise the growing advancement in technology and its increasing reliance on data. There’s a lot of emphasis on moving into a more advanced digital world, and that means the skills that we’re going to need – particularly in the data space – are going to be much greater than they are now.”

Read the full Q&A with the NAMS Consultant Supporters in the April edition of inspire magazine, in members’ inboxes next week. Do you agree with the consultants? If you're an IPWEA member you can share your thoughts in the comments section below. 

Do you want to have a say about the state of infrastructure asset management and help secure the future for the next generations? Register your interest for IPWEA's Asset Management Congress, to be held in Canberra 13-16 August.