A standardized performance assessment and evaluation model for community water systems

The community water systems (CWS) sector is facing significant external forces for change from decreasing water resource availability, stricter water quality regulations, decreasing federal subsidies, increasing public scrutiny, decreasing financial health, increasing environmental impact, increasing social impact, and increasing infrastructure replacement costs. These forces necessitate greater accountability by CWS to their stakeholders.; The goal of this study is to improve the accountability of CWS to their stakeholders. The thesis of this study is that increased accountability is achievable by means of a standardized method for performance assessment and evaluation (PAE) of CWS within a regional water system (RWS). Furthermore, the thesis postulates, that improved accountability achieved through this standardized PAE method permits greater efficiency in the allocation of limited financial resources to CWS that operate as a RWS.; This research develops the model for such a standardized PAE method. The objectives of the model are to: (1) Provide a standardized method for performance assessment of CWS operating as a RWS. The standardized performance assessment method is built from the existing performance assessment methods that are used in the sector; (2) Provide a method for summative evaluation of performance that permits benchmarked comparison of CWS operating as a RWS; and (3) Increase the accountability of CWS to their stakeholders through a transparent and consistent method for assessing their performance and evaluating the assessment results.; The objectives are achieved by adapting the pedagogies of systems analysis (SA) and multiobjective decision analysis (MODA) to the application of PAE for CWS. Thus SA techniques are modified to develop a universal goal and associated objectives for CWS. The MODA techniques are modified to elicit stakeholder preferences and consensus measures of performance for impact management in the form of strategic planning. The overall effects of these modifications are to balance individual CWSP resource allocations with the universal goal of the RWS. This combination of the SA and MODA techniques provide the foundation for a standardized PAE model to: (1) Close CWS financial resource gap by ensuring effective allocation policies are enacted; and (2) Enhance CWS accountability through uniform and consistent performance metrics and assessment methods that are understandable to all stakeholders. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...