Changeable Designs and the Evolution of Value of Infrastructure Systems

Abstract

and leaves out decisions that stakeholders might take during operation such as scaling, modifying or abandoning the system. Changeability is the systems ability to change its parameters conveniently in response to unexpected and/or unplanned demands. Including changeability in infrastructure systems valuation and design is important because it increases the systems value and is very efficient in managing risks. This paper presents a model based on stochastic linear programming for the design and the definition of the optimum changeability policy of infrastructure. The results show that considering changeability lead to more valuable systems than the ones conceived through traditional design.

Traditional engineering design seeks to maximize the value of infrastructure systems under the assumption that they will remain unchangeable over time. However, this assumption does not describe actual infrastructures performance over time