TY - JOUR
T1 - From Reactive to Proactive Infrastructure Maintenance
T2 - Remote Sensing Data and Practical Resilience in the Management of Leaky Pipes
AU - Gahrn-Andersen, Rasmus
AU - Festila, Maria Stefania
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - The introduction of remote sensing technologies, AI and big data analytics in the utility sector is warranted by the need to provide critical services with the least disruption to customers, but also to enable preventive maintenance, extend the life cycle of infrastructure components and reduce grid loss—or overall, to exhibit ‘durability’ and ‘resilience’ when faced with the certainty of breakage and decay. In this paper, we first explore the concept of ‘resilience’ and the nature of practice from a performativist perspective in order to set the scene for discussing the impact of ‘datafication’ on maintenance practices and infrastructure durability. We then describe an instance of introducing remote sensing technologies in district heating network surveillance and leak detection: drone-operated thermographic cameras and underground wire sensors. Based on insights from this case study, we discuss the specificity of data-driven infrastructure maintenance practices, and what it means to exhibit practical resilience in relation to how such practices unfold, interrelate and evolve over time. We reflect on how the use of remote sensing technologies and data analytics (1) potentially changes district heating workers’ epistemic worlds (i.e., how knowledge emerges, is negotiated and ordered in practice) and (2) provides opportunities for ‘messy’ pipe repair work to tacitly adopt proactive and preventive logics to meet continuously evolving organizational and societal needs.
AB - The introduction of remote sensing technologies, AI and big data analytics in the utility sector is warranted by the need to provide critical services with the least disruption to customers, but also to enable preventive maintenance, extend the life cycle of infrastructure components and reduce grid loss—or overall, to exhibit ‘durability’ and ‘resilience’ when faced with the certainty of breakage and decay. In this paper, we first explore the concept of ‘resilience’ and the nature of practice from a performativist perspective in order to set the scene for discussing the impact of ‘datafication’ on maintenance practices and infrastructure durability. We then describe an instance of introducing remote sensing technologies in district heating network surveillance and leak detection: drone-operated thermographic cameras and underground wire sensors. Based on insights from this case study, we discuss the specificity of data-driven infrastructure maintenance practices, and what it means to exhibit practical resilience in relation to how such practices unfold, interrelate and evolve over time. We reflect on how the use of remote sensing technologies and data analytics (1) potentially changes district heating workers’ epistemic worlds (i.e., how knowledge emerges, is negotiated and ordered in practice) and (2) provides opportunities for ‘messy’ pipe repair work to tacitly adopt proactive and preventive logics to meet continuously evolving organizational and societal needs.
U2 - 10.3390/systems12100431
DO - 10.3390/systems12100431
M3 - Journal article
SN - 2079-8954
VL - 12
JO - Systems
JF - Systems
IS - 10
M1 - 431
ER -