The decision support system CARE-S: pros and cons of the project after one year of application

Continuing failures on an ageing network, together with customer and regulator pressure, have increased the need for water companies to become more proactive in maintenance planning. The paper provides an overview of a computer based model for sewer system rehabilitation planning, CARE-S, “Computer Aided Rehabilitation of Sewer and Storm water Networks” (2002-2005), and it describes its vulnerabilities learnt after one year of applications in real case studies, defining procedures to handle with the system limits. The aim of the European Project CARE-S was the development and testing of complementary models for the design and the exploration of rehabilitation strategies and programs for wastewater networks. CARE-S has been tested in different Europe realities. The testing activity highlighted the vulnerabilities of CARE-S influencing its possibilities of application: the need of CCTV data, the recommended inclusion of hydraulic models and the user depending selection of decision criteria in risk based rehabilitation strategy definition