Budget allocation for water mains rehabilitation projects using Simos' procedure

Water mains rehabilitation projects' budget allocation is considered the most important challenge that faces the engineers and the decision maker in governments and municipalities, especially when it is limited. This paper presents a methodology for water mains rehabilitation projects' budget allocation. The proposed methodology consists of two models: (1) the grade classification model; and (2) the project ranking model. The grade classification model uses significant sustainability development criteria such as: economic; social; and environmental criteria. The main function of the grade classification model is to classify the projects into five grade level (lowest, low, medium, high, and very high), whereas, the main function of the project ranking model is to rank the projects at the same level in descending order according to their weighted scoring value. A factor's numerical grade scales have been established to adjust the factor's scoring in the project ranking model. Simos' procedure is integrated with the scoring factors model to develop the grade classification model. A numerical example is provided to demonstrate the proposed methodology.