Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Municipal sewerage system resilience : disturbances and management strategies in Cook County, IL

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https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/w3763946n

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  • Sewerage infrastructure, including wastewater treatment facilities and conveyance pipes, is reaching the end of its useful life throughout the United States. Aging infrastructure may be more susceptible to fracturing and collapses due to deterioration. Further, sewerage infrastructure is usually designed to discharge untreated wastewater or stormwater into nearby waterways during intense wet-weather events, potentially contributing to environmental and public health concerns. Upgrading or replacing sewerage infrastructure often requires major construction projects that can be burdensome for municipalities. This study examines municipal sewerage infrastructure as part of a system with technical, administrative, social, economic, and environmental dimensions. Important disturbances and management strategies affecting municipal sewerage systems in Cook County, Illinois were identified through semi-structured interviews with Public Works and Engineering department professionals. Interviews were then analyzed using resilience theory, attending to system robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, and rapidity. As the vast majority of literature indicates, findings suggest that managers of municipal sewer systems in Cook County are most concerned with maintenance of technical infrastructure, which is largely limited by economic constraints: unpredictable and decreasing financial resources, coupled with the high cost of repair projects. Interviewees from wealthier communities generally demonstrated less concern about current funding for sewerage infrastructure projects, although many expressed concern that they will not be able to sustain their current level of investment. Most interviewees also suggested concern with the lack of residents’ knowledge about sewerage systems and engagement in the management process, often leading to widespread basement flooding and consternation among residents. Interviews highlighted relationships between the robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, and rapidity of many technical, administrative, social, economic, and environmental dimensions; that is, attempts to manage for specific system attributes can have direct and, often, predictable effects on other attributes within the sewerage system.
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