The effective management of wastewater infrastructure assets, such as collection systems, treatment works and disposal or recycling operations is a challenging issue for utility companies. The aim of effective management is to minimise the cost of ownership and operation, whilst providing an acceptable level of service to all customers and conform to regulator directives. Effective asset management is a function of operational, technical, environmental and financial parameters. This challenge is sometimes further complicated for small and medium size networks and facilities, where assets are geographically dispersed but must be managed to the same operational and quality standards as large systems.

Effective planning and design of a disparate set of wastewater collection and treatment assets must incorporate appropriate tools and techniques, such as life cycle analysis of decentralised systems, process design issues and human factors. Day to day management of these assets requires the development and implementation of efficient systems of work, all underpinned by robust data and data management systems. The rise in importance of effective asset management over recent years has posed challenges for engineers, academics and industrial researchers alike. Within this context, a specialist conference on "Asset Management of Medium and Small Wastewater Utilities" will offer significant knowledge transfer and networking opportunities to benefit all stakeholders. This conference is organized by the Laboratory of Ecological Engineering and Technology, Department of Environmental Engineering, Democritus University of Thrace and the International Water Association (IWA) Specialist Group on Strategic Asset Management.


A parallel conference will be organized at the same venue by the Statistics & Economics Specialist Group entitled "2^nd International Conference on Water Economics, Statistics, and Finance". Arrangements have been made for Participants to attend this event.