Tool Developed to Help Local Governments Manage Public Assets

Shimizu Corporation (President: Kazuyuki Inoue) recently developed the Public Asset Simulator together with the IT venture firm, Pirika Inc. (Shibuya, Tokyo; Representative: Fujio Kojima). The simulator is a system that uses a road network model to perform integrated valuation of public facilities and infrastructure to assist local governments with the formulation of plans, etc. for public asset management. This system appraises the value of public assets located along the road network, based on an analysis of road infrastructure network that forms the foundation for public services. It doesn't stop with a simple appraisal of the degree of use and degree of deterioration of individual buildings; it enables the appraisal of assets from a perspective close to that of the user, including such factors as means of access.

Many of the public facilities and infrastructure owned and managed by local governments were built during the period of high growth in Japan, and local governments are concerned about the rising cost of maintenance, management, and renovation as these facilities age. Meanwhile the future prospects for the financial situation and urban environment of local governments are expected to become even tougher as society ages, fewer children are born, and the percentage of the population in their productive years declines. To respond to the problem of aging public assets amid these circumstances, individual local governments are formulating a comprehensive management plan for public facilities and infrastructure that incorporates a basic policy on asset ownership. In the future they will begin a full-fledged effort to formulate concrete program plans aimed at optimizing public asset management based on these high-level plans that will include plans for the consolidation and closure of public facilities, investment in extending the lifespan of infrastructure, etc. We developed the Public Asset Simulator to assist local governments in the formulation of public asset management plans.

The road network model created from road map data forms the base of the simulation of asset appraisal by the Public Asset Simulator. Specifically, a model is created from an aggregation of the intersections and connecting roads in the road network for a particular area, then information on public facilities and other assets, and statistical data on the population and location of industrial districts are linked to this and incorporated in the system database.

This database is used to analyze routes and detours, and appraise the current road network. Assumed scenarios are then added based on projections of the future population, long-range fiscal budget, and the policy on management and operation of public assets and other policy decisions of the local government. A simulation is performed to provide a hierarchical evaluation of the importance of each asset and assign an order of priority to consolidation and disposal or investment in extending the life of a public asset under the assumed scenario. It is possible to verify the financial impact by combining the results from the simulation with data on the lifecycle cost by asset category.

Shimizu will begin offering public asset management services that utilize this system to local governments in the future, and we believe this will strengthen our building stock management business even further.