A decision support system for rehabilitation of sewer pipes

The condition of sewer pipes in North America has severely deteriorated, over the last few decades, creating a need for rehabilitation. Sewer rehabilitation methods are numerous and are constantly being developed, benefiting from emerging technologies. The implementation of these methods is driven by the need to improve quality and to reduce cost and project duration. One of the rapidly expanding fields in the sewer rehabilitation industry is trenchless technology. Due to the large number of methods associated with emerging new technologies in this field, selecting the most suitable method can be a challenging task. Selection in this environment, without a computerized tool, may also suffer from the limited knowledge and (or) experience of the decision-maker and could result in overlooking some of the suitable methods that could do the job at less cost. This paper describes a recently developed system for rehabilitation of concrete and clay sewer pipes and focuses primarily on two of its components: (i) the database management system (DBMS) and (ii) the decision support system (DSS). The system can assist municipal engineers and contractors in selecting the most suitable trenchless rehabilitation technique that specifies job conditions and user requirements. An example application is presented to demonstrate the use and capabilities of the developed system.Key words: pipe defects, rehabilitation, sewer pipes, database management systems, decision support systems, multi-attribute utility theory.