Knowledge Note 4 : Operating and Maintaining Urban Flood Risk Management Investments

Operation and maintenance are critical to ensuring the effectiveness of urban flood management investments over time. In the context of human and financial resource constraints, Japanese cities must enhance operation and maintenance to extend the functional lifetimes of critical investments. While these cities have been able to mobilize financial and technical resources needed to design and implement a wide range of flood management investments (as described in Knowledge Note 3), today many are faced with a large stock of aging infrastructure that was developed during the rapid urbanization of the 1950s-1960s. As Japan’s population shrinks and labor costs increase, there is an urgent need to improve the quality and efficiency of operation and maintenance for existing as well as newly developed urban flood risk management investments. This Knowledge Note highlights the Japanese practice of using operation and maintenance to sustain and enhance the functionality and efficacy of urban flood risk management investments. This Note focuses on two phases of operation and maintenance practice in Japan namely: (i) planning and implementation, such as regular inspections, maintenance, repairs, and replacement work; and (ii) performance monitoring and evaluation, such as regular performance reviews and analysis of data on assets and related indicators. Japanese cities have accumulated various lessons and good practices in how to improve the sustainability and effectiveness of their integrated urban flood risk management (IUFRM) investments. Based on a review of operation and maintenance efforts across several Japanese cities, this note summarizes: (i) key approaches to the operation and maintenance of urban flood risk management investments in Japan, and (ii) enabling factors, including various tools and measures that may be used to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of operation and maintenance.