Network-Level Infrastructure Management Using Approximate Dynamic Programming

This research introduces the use of approximate dynamic programming to overcome a variety of limitations of distinct infrastructure management problem formulations. The form, as well as the parameters, of a model specifying the long-term costs associated with alternate infrastructure maintenance policies are learned via simulation. The introduced methodology makes it possible to manage large heterogeneous networks of facilities related by budgetary restrictions and resource constraints as well as by dependencies in maintenance costs or deterioration. In addition, the methodology is particularly well suited to consideration of multiple types of infrastructure condition data at the same time, including continuous-valued data and relevant historical data. Introduced techniques will prove valuable when high-quality deterioration and cost estimation models are available but are ill suited for use in a Markov decision problem framework. Computational studies show that the introduced approach is able to find an optimal solution to a relatively simple infrastructure management problem, and is able to find increasingly good solutions to a more complex problem.