BUILDING DESIGNS AND PLUMBING FACILITIES: THE IMPLICATION FOR RISING MAINTENANCE COST

The design of buildings plays a crucial role on how the structure/ facility would be utilized and maintained after completion of the project. The way the buildings are designed and maintained thereafter may determine the performance and fulfilment of client’s objectives. However, there seems to be an inherent non-alignment between the building design and future maintenance of the building because design teams frequently neglect the consideration of maintenance aspects especially plumbing facilities. The study examined the influence of building design of plumbing facilities on rising maintenance cost. The questionnaire instrument data obtained were presented using stacked bar charts and Mann-Whitney U Test. The study revealed that the main cause of faulty designs of plumbing utilities in buildings was as a result of not involving plumbing engineers at the design stage. Non-consideration of maintenance of plumbing facilities at design stage pose high influence on design discrepancies resulting in rising maintenance cost. This can majorly be addressed by creating adequate and easy accessibility to plumbing facilities for maintenance purposes. It was noted that designers and maintenance experts are not in agreement on the causes of building design faults of plumbing utilities. It was recommended that proper attention be given to plumbing utilities that are designed for buildings through the integration of plumbing engineers at the design stage for plumbing services. Design agencies must ensure the use of experienced Designers whom should consider maintenance as a core activity at the design stage to actualize a more comprehensive design with contributions from other professionals in the built environment

Optimizing the Structure and Scale of Urban Water Infrastructure: Integrating Distributed Systems

Large-scale, centralized water infrastructure has provided clean drinking water, wastewater treatment, stormwater management and flood protection for U.S. cities and towns for many decades, protecting public health, safety and environmental quality. To accommodate increasing demands driven by population growth and industrial needs, municipalities and utilities have typically expanded centralized water systems with longer distribution and collection networks. This approach achieves financial and institutional economies of scale and allows for centralized management. It comes with tradeoffs, however, including higher energy demands for longdistance transport; extensive maintenance needs; and disruption of the hydrologic cycle, including the large-scale transfer of freshwater resources to estuarine and saline environments.While smaller-scale distributed water infrastructure has been available for quite some time, it has yet to be widely adopted in urban areas of the United States. However, interest in rethinking how to best meet our water and sanitation needs has been building. Recent technological developments and concerns about sustainability and community resilience have prompted experts to view distributed systems as complementary to centralized infrastructure, and in some situations the preferred alternative.In March 2014, the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread partnered with the Water Environment Federation and the Patel College of Global Sustainability at the University of South Florida to convene a diverse group of experts to examine the potential for distributed water infrastructure systems to be integrated with or substituted for more traditional water infrastructure, with a focus on right-sizing the structure and scale of systems and services to optimize water, energy and sanitation management while achieving long-term sustainability and resilience

Ensuring Urban Water Security in Water-Scarce Regions of the United States

On December 11-13, 2013, The Johnson Foundation at Wingspread, along with partner ReNUWit, convened experts from different parts of the country to discuss the implications of chronic and episodic water scarcity on our nation's water infrastructure -- with the goal of moving beyond the "case-by-case" conversation to one about how cities can transform their infrastructure and management strategies. The resulting report identifies key principles of water security and explores components of good strategy and innovative water supply options while building the case for transformation

Vibrational measurement for commissioning SRF Accelerator Test Facility at Fermilab

The commissioning of two cryomodule components is underway at Fermilab's Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) Accelerator Test Facility. The research at this facility supports the next generation high intensity linear accelerators such as the International Linear Collider (ILC), a new high intensity injector (Project X) and other future machines. These components, Cryomodule #1 (CM1) and Capture Cavity II (CC2), which contain 1.3 GHz cavities are connected in series in the beamline and through cryogenic plumbing. Studies regarding characterization of ground motion, technical and cultural noise continue. Mechanical transfer functions between the foundation and critical beamline components have been measured and overall system displacement characterized. Baseline motion measurements given initial operation of cryogenic, vacuum systems and other utilities are considered.Comment: 3 pp. Particle Accelerator, 24th Conference (PAC'11) 2011. 28 Mar - 1 Apr 2011. New York, US

On Consumers' Attitudes and Willingness to Pay for Improved Drinking Water Quality and Infrastructure

Replaced with revised version of paper 07/23/09.willingness to pay, risk perceptions, water infrastructure, simultaneous equation model, Environmental Economics and Policy,

SAMICS: Input data preparation

The Solar Array Manufacturing Industry Costing Standards (SAMICS) provide standard formats, data, assumptions, and procedures for estimating the price that a manufacturer would have to charge for the product of a specified manufacturing process sequence. A line-by-line explanation is given of those standard formats which describe the economically important characteristics of the manufacturing processes and the technological structure of the companies and the industry. This revision provides an updated presentation of Format A Process Description, consistent with the October 1978 version of that form. A checklist of items which should be entered on Format A as direct expenses is included