Development of Asset Information Requirements to support Asset Management

The management of physical assets (asset management) is becoming increasingly important, supported by a shift in mindsets that are seeing maintenance moving from a "necessary evil" to a value-adding exercise. This is enforced by the need to achieve greater asset performance within increasing financial constraints, aiming to achieve "more for less" while limiting impact on the natural environment. The development of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and the concept of whole-life asset management provided a "new" approach to the management of physical assets based on emerging technologies and information management processes. The adoption of BIM within the design and construction phase has widely been considered successful with a wealth of studies showing an increase in productivity, reduction in cost and improved risk management. Despite this, the adoption of BIM within the Operation and maintenance (O&M) phase has been limited. A lack of understanding of what information should be collected at an organisational level to support the management of assets throughout their life, results in asset-related information not being collected in alignment with an organisational requirement. Often the gap between the development of Organisational Information Requirements (OIR) and the generation of Asset Information Requirements (AIR), is too much of a jump or hurdle. This is partly due to the fact that asset management organisations purely focus on the development of technical information requirements, with little consideration of the wider organisation. This thesis proposes a solution to address this challenge by presenting an organisational led framework to the development of Asset Information Requirements (AIR). This thesis presents an Information Requirements framework and Concept Model, introducing the novel concept of Functional Information Requirements (FIR) to bridge the gap between the OIR and the AIR. The framework was derived through a literature review, industry investigation, and feedback gained through several iterations of partial case studies. The final iteration was tested and validated for its practical application by a case study within a university estate management department. Furthermore, the framework was tested by a third-party partner within the infrastructure sector. The thesis concludes that the framework aids in the development of AIR. Feedback noted that while the framework is helpful, it is resource intensive and the “value” of BIM within asset management needs to be addressed to gain the required resources. Furthermore, future research should investigate this challenge by considering the possibility of a common set of information requirements to reduce the need for the framework for individual instances of projects, when the projects are of similar purpose. Emerging techniques should be considered for automatic classification of Assets within a BIM model, this would greatly increase efficiency and reduce the resource intensive nature of the framework. Finally, future research should investigate how the proposed framework can support the evolution of the Digital Twin, within the context of the built environment

Strengthening Armenian Irrigation Capability through Extension Education and Mentoring

The disintegration of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s led to the creation of 440,000 small,privately owned farms in the country of Armenia. Armenian farmers, largely untrained in crop production, needed education and experience in all aspects of agriculture production, including irrigation management. In order to provide irrigation information and resources to individual farmers, the Armenian extension system itself was in need of mentoring by qualified individuals. Utah State University (USU) extension irrigation specialists trained Armenian extension personnel in irrigation fundamentals, implemented a soil moisture monitoring program and conducted on farm irrigation research. Between 2001 and 2005, USU Extension trained Armenian extension specialists and agents in over 25 in country irrigation management workshops. The mentoring team monitored soil water in on farm demonstrations and reduced the number of irrigation water events on many fields through scientific irrigation scheduling. They also conducted impact interviews each fall and found that 54-61% of farmers saved irrigation water and farmers averaged $41-$159 USD per hectare in net benefits from the program. Prior to 2003, Armenian flood irrigation management was perceived as “inefficient.”The irrigation specialists conducted 60 in field efficiency evaluations and found that Armenian farmers achieved above average efficiency. This multi year project suggests that education and mentoring efforts improved irrigation management, which in turn could reduce the demand for irrigation water and improve the economic and agricultural sustainability of Armenia

The Remarkable Mid-Infrared Jet of Massive Young Stellar Object G35.20-0.74

The young massive stellar object G35.20-0.74 was observed in the mid-infrared using T-ReCS on Gemini South. Previous observations have shown that the near infrared emission has a fan-like morphology that is consistent with emission from the northern lobe of a bipolar radio jet known to be associated with this source. Mid-infrared observations presented in this paper show a monopolar jet-like morphology as well, and it is argued that the mid-infrared emission observed is dominated by thermal continuum emission from dust. The mid-infrared emission nearest the central stellar source is believed to be directly heated dust on the walls of the outflow cavity. The hydroxyl, water, and methanol masers associated with G35.20-0.74 are spatially located along these mid-infrared cavity walls. Narrow jet or outflow cavities such as this may also be the locations of the linear distribution of methanol masers that are found associated with massive young stellar objects. The fact that G35.20-0.74 has mid-infrared emission that is dominated by the outflow, rather than disk emission, is a caution to those that consider mid-infrared emission from young stellar objects as only coming from circumstellar disks.Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 4 pages; 2 figures; a version with full resolution images is available here: http://www.ctio.noao.edu/~debuizer