ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT North Sea Region (NSR) countries depend heavily on flood protection infrastructure, such as dykes, dams, sluices and flood gates. Knowledge on where, when and how much to invest is of crucial importance for asset owners. This requires improved asset management approaches that are prepared for feedback and coordination across strategic, tactical and operational levels. Using a desk study, we have updated an asset management maturity model for public infrastructure to incorporate and connect asset management processes/strategies at the strategic, tactical and operational levels. We used the model to analyse the maturity levels of asset management of various asset owners for flood protection infrastructure. The result of the analysis is the baseline level of maturity for each of the NSR countries in terms of asset management approaches. This baseline has been used to identify the potential for improvement in current approaches, together with the perceived barriers for improvements. It is concluded from the analysis that there is ample potential in further mainstreaming asset management across different levels. Furthermore, we have observed that the approaches clearly differ between countries, which means that in the Interreg NSR FAIR project there is opportunity to share knowledge in a meaningful way, so as to enhance practice in the various NSR countries.
