Sustainable Water Infrastructure Asset Management: A Gap Analysis of Customer and Service Provider Perspectives

Sangjong Han, Hwankook Hwang, Seonghoon Kim, Gyu Seok Baek and Joonhong Park
Additional contact information
Sangjong Han: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-Ro, Seodaemun-Gu, Seoul 03722, Korea
Hwankook Hwang: Environmental and Plant Engineering Institute, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, 283, Goyangdae-Ro, Ilsanseo-Gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi-Do 10223, Korea
Seonghoon Kim: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-Ro, Seodaemun-Gu, Seoul 03722, Korea
Gyu Seok Baek: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-Ro, Seodaemun-Gu, Seoul 03722, Korea
Joonhong Park: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Yonsei University, 50 Yonsei-Ro, Seodaemun-Gu, Seoul 03722, Korea

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: The ultimate goal of urban water infrastructure asset management may be sustainable water supply with satisfaction for customers. In this work, we attempted to evaluate the gaps between the perspectives of customers and service providers in Korea’s water infrastructure asset management. To evaluate the customers’ perspective, a hierarchical questionnaire survey was conducted to estimate the weights of influence for six customer values and their attributes on Korean water utility management. To evaluate the service providers’ perspective, an AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) analysis was performed to estimate the weights of influence for the customer values and their PIs (performance indicators). The gap analysis results show that customers place higher value on customer service satisfaction (emotion and information) than do the service providers (managers), whereas the managers place more value on affordability than do the customers. The findings from this work imply that improving customer service is effective in satisfying the desirable water LOS (level of service) for customers. Recommendations have also been provided for administrators and engineers to develop integrated decision-making systems that can reflect customer needs regarding the improvement of their water infrastructure asset management. The findings from this work may be helpful for the Korean government and water supply utilities in improving the sustainability of their water infrastructure asset management.

Keywords: water asset management; Gap analysis; LOS (level of service); PIs (performance indicators); customer value (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/10/13334/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/7/10/13334/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:7:y:2015:i:10:p:13334-13350:d:56531

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().