Water Asset Standard
A shared standard for describing, managing, and monitoring water infrastructure assets.
The mWater Water Asset Standard is an open standard for describing, managing, and sharing data about water supply infrastructure assets.
It provides a common structure for water system asset registers, GIS layers, mobile surveys, maintenance systems, and planning datasets. The standard is designed for use by water authorities, utilities, government agencies, NGOs, engineering firms, development partners, and software teams working with water supply and distribution systems.
The standard defines asset classes, asset types, attributes, data types, units of measurement, and parent-child relationships used to describe water infrastructure. It can be implemented in mWater, spreadsheets, GIS systems, databases, mobile data collection tools, and other asset management platforms.
What This Standard Helps With
- Creating consistent water asset registers
- Comparing infrastructure data across systems and organizations
- Structuring surveys and mobile data collection forms
- Organizing GIS layers for water supply infrastructure
- Tracking physical assets over time using stable asset IDs
- Supporting maintenance, planning, investment, and monitoring workflows
What's Included
The standard covers common water supply and distribution assets, including water systems, facilities, sources, pumps, tanks, treatment assets, power assets, meters, valves, hydrants, sampling points, sensors, water points, pipes, and related infrastructure.
It also includes guidance on unique asset identification, parent-child relationships, general attributes, type-specific attributes, data types, units of measurement, and controlled choice lists.
About The Standard
Water infrastructure data is often stored across disconnected spreadsheets, surveys, GIS files, reports, and asset registers. This makes it difficult to compare systems, share data, plan investments, or track maintenance over time.
The mWater Water Asset Standard creates a shared language for describing water infrastructure assets. By using consistent asset types, attributes, units, and identifiers, organizations can make water system data easier to collect, exchange, analyze, and maintain.
Who It's For
This standard is useful for:
- Water authorities and regulators
- Utilities and service providers
- NGOs and development partners
- Engineering and consulting firms
- GIS and data teams
- Software developers building water asset management tools
- Researchers and analysts working with WASH infrastructure data
License
This document is distributed by mWater Foundation under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Suggested citation:
`mWater Foundation. 2022. The Water System Management Standard: Part 1 -- Asset Management. Version 1.0.`
Intro Section
The mWater Water Asset Standard helps water authorities, utilities, government agencies, development organizations, engineering firms, and software providers use a shared structure for water infrastructure data.
The standard defines common asset classes, asset types, attributes, data types, units of measurement, and relationships used to describe water supply and distribution systems. It is designed for low-resource and operational contexts, while remaining flexible enough to implement in spreadsheets, GIS platforms, online databases, and mobile applications.
The standard is open and can be adapted under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Why It Matters
Water infrastructure data is often fragmented across surveys, spreadsheets, GIS files, donor reports, and asset registers. That makes it difficult to compare systems, track maintenance, plan investments, or share data between organizations.
The Water Asset Standard provides a common language for water system assets so that data can be collected once, understood consistently, and reused across tools and institutions.
Who Should Use It
- Water authorities and regulators building national or regional asset registers
- Utilities and service providers managing infrastructure inventories
- NGOs and development partners collecting water system data
- Engineering firms designing or assessing water supply systems
- Software teams building water asset management tools
- Researchers and analysts comparing water infrastructure datasets
What The Standard Covers
The standard provides guidance for managing and sharing data about physical assets in water supply and distribution systems. It covers:
- Asset identification and immutable asset IDs
- Parent-child relationships between assets
- Asset classes and asset types
- General attributes that apply across assets
- Type-specific attributes for water infrastructure components
- Data types and units of measurement
- Attribute conditions and choice lists
- Guidance for organizing assets in registers, databases, GIS, and mobile data collection systems
The standard currently recognizes 28 asset types organized into 5 asset classes.
Asset Types Included
The standard includes common water system assets such as:
- Water systems and water facilities
- Sources, pumps, tanks, treatment assets, and power assets
- Meters, valves, hydrants, junctions, sampling points, sensors, and analyzers
- Structures and water points
- Pipes and other horizontal infrastructure
- Natural asset categories reserved for future development
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