International asset management knowledge sharing event for municipalities

On September 8, 2016 the assosiation "Stadswerk” (the Dutch branch of the International Federation of Municipal Engineering, IFME) organized a knowledge sharing event in the field of asset management with IPWEA (Institute of Public Works Engineering Australasia).

In Australia professional asset management has been high on the municipality agenda for many years. This caused asset management principles to be firmly anchored in municipalities. This applies to infrastructure, objects in public space as well as for real estate managed by the municipality. In addition to objectives such as accessibility, municipalities also manage on the basis of financial indicators such as:

• "Asset Consumption Ratio": the current value of the assets as a fraction of the replacement cost of the assets;
• "Asset Sustainability Ratio": the capital expenditures on renewal and replacement of assets as a fraction of the depreciation of assets;
• "Asset Renewal Funding Ratio": the net present value (NPV) of asset replacement funding as a fraction of the net present value of projected capital renewal expenditures. Both of these for a period of 10 years.

The law in Australia states that local government must determine a budget for the next 10 years, including the cost of investment, replacement, operation and maintenance of the assets.

Also in The Netherlands there is a trend that municipalities establish a clear link between the the City Council objectives and the activities that are required to achieve those objectives. The use of ISO 55000 as a tool for this increases.

The municipality of Amsterdam organized a tour during which they showed in practice how they deal with an important Amsterdam asset: the trees.

An interesting day where theory and practice came together.