Title: An integrated system approach to characterise a drinking water infrastructure system

Authors: Ritsche Anne Kloosterman; Jan Peter Van Der Hoek

Addresses: Vitens N.V., Oude Veerweg 1, Zwolle, Postbus 1205, 8001 BE Zwolle, The Netherlands ' Department of Water Management, Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands

Abstract: The object of this article is the drinking water infrastructure (DWI), a critical societal infrastructure. To make effective decisions it is important to characterise and understand the complexity of DWI systems. DWI systems can be seen as a system of systems, consisting of the social-ecological system and the social-technical system. The social-ecological system determines the location and seize of the water resources, while the social-technical system is about the technical infrastructure. The two systems with different characteristics must align to work effective together in the DWI system. The tension between different lifecycles of the assets and dynamic changes in both systems, the time of change, is important to take into account. The SoPhyTech infra framework was developed based on the two systems and time of change. The advantages of applying the SoPhyTech infra framework is studied in a case comparing two very different DWI systems: Indonesia (Semarang) and the Netherlands (Vitens). The SoPhyTech infra framework was shown to be effective for characterising a DWI system with different interacting lifecycles in different systems and it is expected that it also can be used to characterise other infrastructure systems.

Keywords: system of systems; SoS; decision-making; complexity; drinking water; critical infrastructure; water resources; social-ecological system; technical infrastructure; social-technical system; long-term decisions making; long life time assets; Semarang; Vitens.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCIS.2020.105403

International Journal of Critical Infrastructures, 2020 Vol.16 No.1, pp.1 - 22

Received: 16 Jul 2018
Accepted: 01 Feb 2019
Published online: 28 Feb 2020 *

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