The deteriorating condition of federal facilities poses economic, safety, operational, and environmental risks to the federal government, to the achievement of the missions of federal agencies, and to the achievement of public policy goals. Primary factors underlying this deterioration are the age of federal facilities-about half are at least 50 years old-and decades of inadequate investment for their maintenance and repair. These issues are not new and there are no quick fixes. However, the current operating environment provides both the impetus and the opportunity to place investments in federal facilities' maintenance and repair on a new, more sustainable course for the 21st Century. Despite the magnitude of investments, funding for the maintenance and repair of federal facilities has been inadequate for many years, and myriad projects have been deferred. Predicting Outcomes of Investments in Maintenance and Repair of Federal Facilities identifies processes and practices for transforming the current portfolio of federal facilities into one that is more economically, physically, and environmentally sustainable. This report addresses ways to predict or quantify the outcomes that can be expected from a given level of maintenance and repair investments in federal facilities or facilities' systems, and what strategies, measures, and data should be in place to determine the actual outcomes of facilities maintenance and repair investments.

Public policy and management problems have been described as poorly defined, messy, squishy, unstructured, intractable, and wicked. In a word, they are complex. This book illustrates the development and use of simulation models designed to capture some of the complexity inherent in the formulation, management, and implementation of policies aimed at addressing such problems. Simulation models have long existed at the fringes of policy inquiry but are not yet considered an essential component of the policy analyst’s toolkit. However, this situation is likely to change because with improvements in computational power and software, simulation is now easier to include in the standard repertoire of research tools available for discovery and decision support. This volume provides both a conceptual rationale for using simulations to inform public policy and a practical introduction to how such models might be constructed and employed. The focus of these papers is on the uses of simulation to gain understanding and inform policy decisions and action. Techniques represented in this volume include Monte Carlo simulation, system dynamics and agent based modeling.

Authors have attempted to create coherent chapters and sections on how the fundamentals of maintenance cost should be organized, to present them in a logical and sequential order. Necessarily, the text starts with importance of maintenance function in the organization and moves to life cycle cost (LCC) considerations followed by the budgeting constraints. In the process, they have intentionally postponed the discussion about intangible costs and downtime costs later on in the book mainly due to the controversial part of it when arguing with managers. The book will be concluding with a short description of a number of sectors where maintenance cost is of critical importance. The goal is to train the readers for a deeper study and understanding of these elements for decision making in maintenance, more specifically in the context of asset management. This book is intended for managers, engineers, researchers, and practitioners, directly or indirectly involved in the area of maintenance. The book is focused to contribute towards better understanding of maintenance cost and use of this knowledge to improve the maintenance process. Key Features: • Emphasis on maintenance cost and life cycle cost especially under uncertainty. • Systematic approach of how cost models can be applied and used in the maintenance field. • Compiles and reviews existing maintenance cost models. • Consequential and direct costs considered. • Comparison of maintenance costs in different sectors, infrastructure, manufacturing, transport.

Risk analysis is not a narrowly defined set of applications. Rather, it is widely used to assess and manage a plethora of hazards that threaten dire implications. However, too few people actually understand what risk analysis can help us accomplish and, even among experts, knowledge is often limited to one or two applications. Explaining Risk Analysis frames risk analysis as a holistic planning process aimed at making better risk-informed decisions and emphasizing the connections between the parts. This framework requires an understanding of basic terms, including explanations of why there is no universal agreement about what risk means, much less risk assessment, risk management and risk analysis. Drawing on a wide range of case studies, the book illustrates the ways in which risk analysis can help lead to better decisions in a variety of scenarios, including the destruction of chemical weapons, management of nuclear waste and the response to passenger rail threats. The book demonstrates how the risk analysis process and the data, models and processes used in risk analysis will clarify, rather than obfuscate, decision-makers’ options. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of risk assessment, risk management, public health, environmental science, environmental economics and environmental psychology.

This book explores the historical relationships between human communities and water. Bringing together for the first time key texts from across the literature, it discusses how the past has shaped our contemporary challenges with equitable access to clean and ample water supplies. The book is organized into chapters that explore thematic issues in water history, including “Water and Civilizations,” Water and Health,” “Water and Equity” and “Water and Sustainability”. Each chapter is introduced by a critical overview of the theme, followed by four primary and secondary readings that discuss critical nodes in the historical and contemporary development of each chapter theme. “Further readings” at the end of each chapter invite the reader to further explore the dynamics of each theme. The foundational premise of the book is that in order to comprehend the complexity of global water challenges, we need to understand the history of cultural forces that have shaped our water practices. These historical patterns shape the range of choices available to us as we formulate responses to water challenges. The book will be a valuable resource to all students interested in understanding the challenges of water use today.

From BIM (building information modeling) to RFID (radio frequency identification) to BAS (building automation and control systems), facility managers of today's commercial buildings are often asked to work with a variety of technologies without any experience in IT. This new book is a welcome primer for facility managers and engineers. Each chapter covers a different technology and includes specific and helpful case studies. Authored by the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), this unique resource is also a practical textbook for candidates studying for IFMA certification.

Maintenance combines various methods, tools, and techniques in a bid to reduce maintenance costs while increasing the reliability, availability, and security of equipment. Condition-based maintenance (CBM) is one such method, and prognostics forms a key element of a CBM program based on mathematical models for predicting remaining useful life (RUL). Prognostics and Remaining Useful Life (RUL) Estimation: Predicting with Confidence compares the techniques and models used to estimate the RUL of different assets, including a review of the relevant literature on prognostic techniques and their use in the industrial field. This book describes different approaches and prognosis methods for different assets backed up by appropriate case studies. FEATURES Presents a compendium of RUL estimation methods and technologies used in predictive maintenance Describes different approaches and prognosis methods for different assets Includes a comprehensive compilation of methods from model-based and data-driven to hybrid Discusses the benchmarking of RUL estimation methods according to accuracy and uncertainty, depending on the target application, the type of asset, and the forecast performance expected Contains a toolset of methods and a way of deployment aimed at a versatile audience This book is aimed at professionals, senior undergraduates, and graduate students in all interdisciplinary engineering streams that focus on prognosis and maintenance.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. Founded in the late 1870s, NIH has produced extraordinary advances in the treatment of common and rare diseases and leads the world in biomedical research. It is a critical national resource that plays an important role in supporting national security. The 310-acre Bethesda campus supports some 20,000 employees and contractors, and it contains more than 12 million square feet of facilities divided amongst nearly 100 buildings, including the largest dedicated research hospital in the world. The Bethesda campus supports some of the most sophisticated and groundbreaking biomedical research in the world. However, while some new state-of-the-art buildings have been constructed in recent years, essential maintenance for many facilities and the campus overall has been consistently deferred for many years. The deteriorating condition of NIH's built environment is now putting its ability to fulfill its mission at substantial risk. Managing the NIH Bethesda Campus's Capital Assets for Success in a Highly Competitive Global Biomedical Research Environment identifies the facilities in greatest need of repair on the Bethesda campus and evaluates cost estimates to determine what investment is needed for the NIH to successfully accomplish its mission going forward.

The construction industry is one of the key economic sectors in Europe, but it was hit hard by the financial crisis. In the euro zone, employment in construction declined by a quarter since 2008. These difficult times raise important questions about the future path of the construction industry. The Briefing describes the various aspects of renovation and maintenance activities in the EU, and explores their potential to become the main growth driver for the European construction market.