The ultimate goal of urban water infrastructure asset management may be sustainable water supply with satisfaction for customers. In this work, we attempted to evaluate the gaps between the perspectives of customers and service providers in Korea’s water infrastructure asset management. To evaluate the customers’ perspective, a hierarchical questionnaire survey was conducted to estimate the weights of influence for six customer values and their attributes on Korean water utility management. To evaluate the service providers’ perspective, an AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process) analysis was performed to estimate the weights of influence for the customer values and their PIs (performance indicators). The gap analysis results show that customers place higher value on customer service satisfaction (emotion and information) than do the service providers (managers), whereas the managers place more value on affordability than do the customers. The findings from this work imply that improving customer service is effective in satisfying the desirable water LOS (level of service) for customers. Recommendations have also been provided for administrators and engineers to develop integrated decision-making systems that can reflect customer needs regarding the improvement of their water infrastructure asset management. The findings from this work may be helpful for the Korean government and water supply utilities in improving the sustainability of their water infrastructure asset management.

One of water utility’s managerial challenges is to make a balance in between two distinctive managerial goals, cost-effective provision of water service and improving customer satisfaction of water service. As management priorities of the water utility perspective do not reconcile from the customer’s perspective, this gap challenges the sustainable provision of water service. In this study, the new methodology based on a gap analysis was proposed to improve the Overall Level of Service (O-LOS) of water service. Two new indexes (Gap Index [GI] and the Efficiency Index [EI]) were developed to improve the O-LOS and minimize the gap between the customers and the service providers. The methodology proposed in this study is effective in supporting the water utility decisions on budget allocation to make a balance in between the customers’ demand and the service providers’ needs.

The operation and management of social infrastructures can create significant headaches for municipal governments. Sewer systems are no exception, and prioritizing plans and strategies for asset management is usually adopted as a cost-effective solution. The condition assessment, which is an important element of asset management, provides current information about the condition of municipal facilities. Condition assessments were first used by Water Research Centre (WRc) in the UK, the country with the longest history of sewer management, and are now widely used in many countries. Korea uses the condition assessment protocol developed by the Ministry of Environment (MOE), but as this protocol does not fully reflect the underground environment in Korea, the assessments and judgments are ambiguous. The sewer condition assessment and rehabilitation decision-making (SCARD) program developed by this study is based on the MOE protocol with the defect items, score, and condition grading system modified in consideration of the type of buried pipelines in Korea. To compare the assessment results produced by these two protocols, a closed-circuit television inspection was performed on 11 km of sewer pipeline in the sampled area in P city. The inspection indicated that SCARD set a higher score of structural defects common to both protocols for items that affect the collapse mechanism (fracture, damage, etc.). The amount of pipeline that received a grade of five for internal condition rating of identified structure defects was 45% with the MOE protocol, which was much higher than the 0.6% given with SCARD. This result showed that there was a big difference between the two protocols in condition grade evaluations of structural defects. In the future, the findings of this study can be used to develop an objective protocol reflecting actual sewer pipeline conditions.

Ground subsidence in urban areas often reflects hidden failures within water and sewer infrastructure, amplified by hydrologic and seasonal conditions. This study analyzes 303 documented subsidence incidents in Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, from 2018 to 2024, focusing on infrastructure-related causes and their spatial and seasonal patterns. Incident records were reviewed to identify root causes, geographic distribution, seasonal trends, and impacts, including human injury and vehicle damage. Descriptive analysis showed that sewer pipe damage (39.3%) was the leading cause, followed by poor compaction or backfilling (22.8%) and excavation-related damage (14.2%). Subsidence linked to sewer systems occurred disproportionately during the summer monsoon, highlighting interactions between rainfall, pipe deterioration, and soil erosion. Statistical analysis using the Extended Fisher’s Exact Test revealed significant associations between subsidence causes and seasonality, vehicle damage, and regional location, but no significant link with human injury. Defective pipe construction contributed to elevated regional vulnerability, particularly in eastern municipalities, while excavation-related incidents were more common in spring. These results underscore the need for seasonally adaptive inspections, targeted rehabilitation of aging water and sewer networks, and region-specific asset management. By connecting subsurface failures with hydrologic conditions and infrastructure performance, this study offers data-driven insights to enhance proactive water infrastructure management and urban resilience.