AWWA INF52178

Sandia National Laboratories of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is developing the science and engineering of system surety in the course of its work with nuclear weapons. Surety incorporates elements of reliability, safety, and security to define the level of confidence that a system will operate exactly as planned under both expected and unexpected circumstances. Surety assures reliability under normal operating circumstances, safety under off-normal circumstances, and security under malevolent or hostile circumstances. Surety provides an alternative to compliance-based philosophies, providing a robust systemic framework for understanding and solving issues associated with achieving desired levels of safety, security, and reliability. System surety could be used for system-level analysis and engineering of the water supply infrastructure. The analysis could include a surety evaluation of the total water infrastructure regarding shortfalls in adequate maintenance, planned replacements, regional coordination, emergency response capabilities, security, and a wide range of other issues. A simple example of this application is provided. Includes 12 references, figure.