Asset management software for sewer and stormwater networks

Best asset management software for sewer and stormwater networks

For a wastewater utility managing sewer collection systems and stormwater infrastructure, I would prioritize software that combines GIS-based asset records, work order management, condition assessment, risk-based rehabilitation planning, and maintenance history in one operational workflow.

The best solution depends on whether your main problem is day-to-day maintenance, aging infrastructure and capital planning, regulatory reporting, or coordinating field crews. A platform designed for water and wastewater utilities will generally be a better fit than a generic computerized maintenance management system (CMMS).

My top recommendations

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1. OpenGov Enterprise Asset Management

(Best overall for municipal utilities)

A strong starting point for a city or public utility managing sanitary sewer, stormwater, and other public infrastructure together. It brings asset records, inspections, work orders, and maintenance workflows into a public-sector-focused platform.opengov.com+1

Best if: Your biggest issue is fragmented asset data and reactive maintenance across multiple departments.

Website:OpenGov EAM

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2. Autodesk Info360 Asset

(Best for sewer condition and rehabilitation planning)

Particularly compelling for wastewater collections systems with large CCTV inspection programs. It consolidates inspection media and condition data, scores asset risk, and helps prioritize rehabilitation and replacement. It also supports stormwater assets.www.autodesk.com+2

Best if: You need to decide which pipes, manholes, and drainage assets to repair or replace first, and justify capital spending.

Website:Autodesk Info360 Asset

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3. Trimble Unity Maintain

A strong choice for utilities that run their operations around Esri ArcGIS. It connects GIS-based asset information with inspections, service requests, work orders, and maintenance analysis. It is the current cloud-first successor in the Cityworks ecosystem.www.trimble.com+1

Best if: Your GIS is already mature and field crews need to work directly from mapped asset records.

Website:Trimble Unity Maintain

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4. IBM Maximo Application Suite

A more extensive enterprise option for organizations managing collection networks alongside pump stations, treatment plants, equipment, inventory, and complex maintenance programs. It supports work management, mobile maintenance, and GIS-related capabilities.www.ibm.com+1

Best if: You are a large regional authority or utility that needs enterprise-wide maintenance, scheduling, and asset lifecycle controls.

Website:IBM Maximo

How they compare

This is a qualitative fit assessment, not a benchmark test. Capabilities depend on licensed modules, configuration, and integrations. Autodesk's sewer inspection and stormwater capabilities are documented by the vendor; validate the other vendors' specific workflows in a scripted demo.opengov.com+3

What I would require for a wastewater collections system

Regardless of vendor, make the following capabilities mandatory in your request for proposals (RFP).

• Complete asset inventory: gravity mains, force mains, manholes, lift stations, pumps, wet wells, outfalls, inlets, culverts, and other relevant stormwater assets.
• Preventive and corrective maintenance: recurring cleaning, root control, pump maintenance, blockage response, and overflow-related work orders.
• CCTV and condition assessment: store inspection videos, defect codes, condition grades, and inspection history against the correct pipe or structure.
• Risk-based capital planning: rank assets by likelihood and consequence of failure, criticality, condition, and replacement or rehabilitation cost.
• Mobile field operations: crews can view asset locations, capture inspection results, attach photographs, and close work orders in the field.
• Performance reporting: track sanitary sewer overflows, repeat blockages, maintenance backlog, inspection coverage, asset failure rates, and rehabilitation spending.
• Open integration: support your existing GIS, hydraulic or hydrologic models, financial system, and CCTV contractor data without excessive duplicate entry.

A useful independent reference is the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection's asset management software assessment, which distinguishes basic maintenance tools from systems with more advanced enterprise and long-term capital-planning capabilities.dep.nj.gov

My final recommendation

I would put OpenGov EAM and Trimble Unity Maintain on the shortlist for daily operations and work management, then evaluate Autodesk Info360 Asset if deteriorating sewer pipes, CCTV data, and rehabilitation prioritization are central to your problem. A combination of an operations platform and a specialized condition-assessment platform may be the better answer than expecting one system to do everything.

Before selecting software, I would narrow it down based on your situation.

Find the best fit for your system

A few details will help me give you a more specific recommendation.

1. What type of organization do you manage?

Municipal utility or public works department

Regional wastewater authority

Private utility or contract operator

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2. What is your biggest problem today?

Aging pipes and rehabilitation prioritization

Reactive maintenance and work orders

Incomplete GIS and asset records

Stormwater compliance and flooding

All of the above

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3. What GIS platform do you use?

Esri ArcGIS

Another GIS platform

No established GIS / mostly spreadsheets

Not sure

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4. Approximately how large is your collection network?

Under 100 miles

100–500 miles

Over 500 miles

Not sure

[Recommend the best-fit software]

Managing a combined or separate wastewater collection and stormwater network requires specialized asset management platforms—ideally ones tightly coupled with GIS mapping , condition assessment standards (like NASSCO PACP/MACP for CCTV inspections), and regulatory compliance (such as NPDES and MS4 permits).opengov.com+3

Leading asset management software platforms specifically tailored or robustly configured for sewer, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure include:

• Cityworks (by Trimble): A market leader built natively on the Esri ArcGIS platform. It treats your GIS map as the ultimate inventory source, making it exceptional for tracking linear underground assets (pipes, manholes, mains) alongside vertical assets (lift stations, treatment plants, stormwater detention ponds). It handles work orders, routine cleaning/flushing schedules, and regulatory MS4/sanitary sewer compliance tracking seamlessly.videos.trimble.com+2
• OpenGov Wastewater Collection Asset Management: Purpose-built for local governments and utilities. It features native Esri mapping, built-in risk scoring, and deterioration modeling specifically tuned for underground pipe networks. It includes robust support for NASSCO standards (PACP/MACP/LACP) to ingest CCTV inspection footage and features a "Scenario Builder" for multi-decade capital improvement planning.opengov.com
• Novotx Elements XS: A unified asset management and work order platform with specialized modules for stormwater and wastewater management. It offers real-time, native integration with Esri GIS without requiring separate data syncing steps. It is highly regarded for user-defined custom workflows, tracking service requests from inlet to outfall, and handling field inspections via online/offline mobile apps.novotx.com
• Infor Public Sector (EAM): An enterprise-grade solution that pairs deeply with financial and ERP data. It is well-suited for larger municipalities and regional utility authorities managing massive inventories of water, wastewater, and stormwater assets. Infor excels at combining lifecycle asset tracking, predictive maintenance modeling, and strict capital project budgeting/compliance reporting.epa.gov+2
• Schneider Geospatial (QPublic / GovOffice / Local Government Suite): Offers dedicated modules explicitly broken down for Sewer and Stormwater (including MS4 permit tracking, catch basin inspections, and hydrant/outfall mapping). It provides intuitive tablet and web-based field access designed for smaller to mid-sized municipal public works departments.schneidergis.com

To help narrow down which platform fits best, tell me:

• Are you currently using Esri ArcGIS or another specific GIS system?
• Roughly how many miles of sewer/storm mains or lift stations are you managing?

For a wastewater collections system, I’d focus on platforms that manage sewer mains, manholes, lift stations, force mains, inspection records, maintenance work orders, asset condition, and failure risk. If your responsibilities also include stormwater, look for support for catch basins, culverts, storm drains, and drainage networks.

Several platforms are specifically relevant to wastewater collection and stormwater infrastructure. The key distinction is between software that manages assets and maintenance throughout their lifecycle and software that primarily models hydraulic performance.

Platforms worth evaluating

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1. OpenGov Wastewater Collection

(Strong fit for collections)

Designed specifically for wastewater collection teams. Features include GIS-integrated asset tracking, condition-based maintenance, mobile inspections, and risk scoring for sewer mains, manholes, pumps, and lift stations.opengov.com

Best for: A utility seeking more proactive oversight of collection-system assets and fewer reactive repairs.

Vendor:OpenGov — Wastewater Collection

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2. Autodesk InfoAsset Manager

(Strong fit for network analysis)

Built for water and wastewater infrastructure asset management. It consolidates GIS, hydraulic-model, and maintenance-system data, with condition reporting, asset queries, and planning support. It covers sanitary sewers, storm sewers, drainage, and other configurable networks.opengov.com+1

Best for: Utilities that want a detailed, integrated view of network condition and investment priorities.

Vendor:Autodesk InfoAsset Manager

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3. Trimble Unity Maintain (formerly Cityworks ecosystem)

A GIS-centric enterprise asset management platform for utilities and public works. It supports asset inventories, inspections, service requests, work orders, performance analysis, and maintenance planning. Its GIS-based approach is suitable for both wastewater and stormwater assets.www.trimble.com+1

Best for: Municipal utilities that want to connect mapped infrastructure with field operations and work management.

Vendor:Trimble Unity Maintain

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4. Autodesk Info360 Asset

A cloud-based platform for water, sanitary sewer, and stormwater asset condition and risk management. It includes inspection-data workflows, CCTV defect review, condition scoring, deterioration modeling, rehabilitation planning, and capital investment prioritization.www.autodesk.com+1

Best for: Improving sewer inspection oversight and deciding which pipes need cleaning, rehabilitation, repair, or replacement first.

Vendor:Autodesk Info360 Asset

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5. Autodesk InfoWorks ICM

A hydraulic and hydrologic modeling platform for sanitary sewer, stormwater, and flood infrastructure. It helps assess network capacity, simulate wet-weather events, evaluate flooding, and test improvement scenarios.www.autodesk.com

Best for: Understanding system performance, bottlenecks, surcharge, overflow risk, and the hydraulic consequences of planned upgrades.

Important: This complements an asset management system rather than replacing one.

Vendor:Autodesk InfoWorks ICM

How I would narrow the shortlist

What to evaluate in a demonstration

Regardless of vendor, ask each to demonstrate these workflows using your own representative data:

• Risk-based prioritization: Can it rank assets by likelihood and consequence of failure?
• Inspection oversight: Can it ingest CCTV inspections and PACP-coded results, track defects, and retain inspection history?
• Preventive maintenance: Can it schedule recurring inspections, cleaning, and lift-station maintenance?
• Stormwater coverage: Can it manage catch basins, culverts, outfalls, and storm drains alongside sanitary sewer assets?
• Operational accountability: Can supervisors see overdue work orders, repeat failures, overflow incidents, and maintenance costs?
• Capital planning: Can it produce a defensible, costed rehabilitation and replacement program?
• Integration: Can it connect to your existing GIS, CMMS, SCADA, and hydraulic modeling tools without creating duplicate records?

My recommendation: Start with a demonstration of OpenGov Wastewater Collection and Autodesk Info360 Asset. They address complementary priorities: operational oversight of the collection system and condition-based rehabilitation planning. Include Trimble Unity Maintain if GIS-centric work management is central to your organization, and Autodesk InfoAsset Manager if cross-system data integration is a major requirement.

One question would help me refine this further: Is your biggest gap currently day-to-day maintenance and work-order tracking, sewer inspection and condition assessment, or long-term risk and capital planning?