Exploring Challenges to Implement an Integrated Urban Infrastructure Management Approach

As infrastructure systems are interdependent, the disruption of one infrastructure system may generate cascading impacts on other infrastructure systems. Thus, becoming necessary to adopt an integrative approach to manage multiple infrastructure systems. However, the interaction between multiple infrastructure agencies may place challenges for developing an integrated management approach. This study aims to identify existing challenges in agencies managing urban infrastructure systems to implement an integrated management approach, namely, water, wastewater, stormwater, and transportation infrastructure. The authors carried out 11 semi-structured interviews during 2020 and 2021 with multiple stakeholders involved in managing water, wastewater, stormwater, and transportation systems in Chile that were qualitatively analyzed. The results revealed that the legal framework, limited workforce, and limited coordination protocols among agencies limit the implementation of an integrated urban infrastructure management approach. Furthermore, our results suggest that there is a high awareness among respondents for challenges related to operational problems (i.e., short-term issues), such as access to information, and human resources. Conversely, long-term challenges, such as policies, strategies, and risk analyses shown a lower awareness by interviewees. Identifying existing challenges faced by agencies managing urban infrastructure systems may assist in developing policies to successfully implementing an integrated infrastructure management approach.