13. Indicator Framework
This project has assessed New Zealand's key infrastructure in the energy, water, transport and communications sectors. The terms of reference also require proposal of an indicator framework for ongoing use in monitoring and policy development in relation to each sector.
In a number of sectors, there is extensive ongoing work underway at the central government level. Substantial amounts of data are already collected in these sectors. We do not propose that this work should reinvent the wheel for such sectors. Further, from a policy perspective, information on infrastructure may be only one part of a wider set of data on processes in the economy and society. Any focus on infrastructure should not lose sight of the wider picture.
We therefore propose a conceptual framework for considering indicators relating to infrastructure. It is more easily applied to certain sectors than others, but nevertheless serves as a framework for considering infrastructure more generally.
A note of caution in the use of indicators:
- indicators are very high-level pieces of information. In and of themselves, they are unlikely to provide a complete picture or to explain particular issues. They do however serve as warning devices, where a change in data or trend acts as a prompt for further investigation.
- Indicators require accessible and collectible information. Information that is commercially sensitive is unlikely to be provided by infrastructure owners.
13.1 Basic Framework
Data on infrastructure, in isolation from its position as one part of a wider process or activity risks being relatively meaningless. Infrastructure needs to be considered in the context of the inputs of any resource to that infrastructure (e.g. fuel for electricity generation, water supply), and its end use. From a policy perspective, the inputs and end use may well be of greater importance than the infrastructure itself.
Figure 66 below illustrates the basic framework.
Figure 66: Basic Framework for Infrastructure Indicators
Issues around resource supply can consider the stock of input resource, its availability, impacts arising from its extraction and, potentially, use. Infrastructure capacity, condition and transmission efficiency looks at the actual infrastructure itself. End use is less a consideration of infrastructure itself, but is necessary to be able to compare demand with supply, of both resource and infrastructure.
This framework lends itself most easily to infrastructure sectors where the service to the end user is delivery of a resource using infrastructure. This applies obviously to electricity, gas, water and wastewater. It is effectively the case also for telecommunications (although strictly there is no "input" resource in the manner of fuel supply or water supply).
The framework has less applicability to the transport sector, where provision of the infrastructure (as defined for the purposes of this report) is the service, rather than delivery of a service using the infrastructure. The "input resource" is less of an issue (or, conceptually, the input and end-use boxes would merge). However, the issues of condition, capacity and efficiency remain important, in terms of how they affect use of the infrastructure.
13.2 Energy
The Ministry of Economic Development undertakes extensive monitoring work in the energy sector. The Ministry for the Environment also collects (or intends to collect) data on emissions and pollution. This data provides a significant resource for the Government in considering policy in relation to energy use. Data of particular use in considering Government's economic growth and sustainable development objectives are likely to include:
- Input Resource:
- Actual electricity generation by fuel source
- Proportion of energy from domestic sources
- Known fuel reserves and number of years of supply implied
- Pollution impacts arising from electricity generation (CO2, NOx, SOx)
- Capacity, condition and efficiency
- Electricity generating capacity by fuel source
- Efficiency of energy conversion (thermal fuels)
- Transmission losses (electricity and gas)
- Measures of service performance: number of disruptions to supply, cause and time to rectify
- End-use
- Proportion of electricity consumption by energy source (electricity, gas, other (e.g. fuel oil)).
- Energy intensity of the economy (total energy consumption, and energy consumption per $ of GDP).
- Demand-supply gaps
13.3 Water Supply
Water resources are managed on a local or regional basis. With the exception of the Waikato pipeline to Auckland, water supply infrastructure is also localised, and concentrated on populous areas. A wide range of data is already collected, or is in the process of being developed. These include:
- The Ministry for Agriculture and Fisheries, Regional Councils, Ministry of Environment and others collect information on stocks and flows of water. Statistics New Zealand is in the process of compiling natural resource accounts for water stocks and flows.
- A range of data on potable water supply is collected by the Ministry of Health, which also sets standards for the quality of treated water and the risk of contamination of water in pipes. This provides a good ongoing measure of the quality of potable water.
At a national level, we see value in continuing to collect data regularly on the quantities of water utilised, by sector of the economy. Over time, this provides a general assessment of the changes in water utilisation by sector.
Water supply and wastewater treatment is generally the responsibility of regional and local government, rather than central government. Other than in relation to Ministry of Health water gradings, water utilities do not report on a consistent basis across the country, for a number of reasons (not least the different local circumstances faced by each utility). Any national reporting on a consistent basis would therefore be extremely difficult at present, and also risks creating national standards that may not be locally appropriate. Our experience in undertaking water benchmarking surveys and gathering data for this report confirms this.
We believe that there is little comparable statistical data collected on individual infrastructure performance. Maarama Consulting suggest71 a range of indicators that might be collected by water utilities, but many of these are very detailed. On a national basis, we would suggest that the following limited measures would be most appropriate:
- The number, type and duration of planned and unplanned interruptions to supply, by region.
- Service charges:
- The proportion of domestic and commercial reticulated water supply that is metered and charged to users on the basis of volumes. This data would be of most value if there were active policies to encourage or require water metering and volumetric charging.
- The proportion of costs of service recovered through user charges.
- Unaccounted for water. Water utilities often measure "non-revenue" water, which includes water for fire fighting, back-flushing as well as leakages. Leakage rates would be most useful in assessing the efficient transmission of water in reticulation systems.
- Supply/demand gaps.
- Number and duration of restrictions placed on water supplies (e.g. hosepipe bans), by region.
- Plant treatment capacity as a proportion of peak demand.
13.4 Wastewater
In a similar vein to that proposed above for water supply, appropriate measures on the performance of the infrastructure are similar to those proposed for water supply.
- Number of overflows.
- Breach of resource consents.
- Proportion of costs of treatment charged to users.
The issue of discharges of wastewater into the environment is highly complex, depending on the receiving environment's ability to absorb waste and the use to which the environment may be put (and therefore the risk of impact on human health or amenity). To the extent that standards are articulated in law, these relate to end-use of the environment (e.g. recreational use, shellfish collection), rather than to the actual composition of effluent discharged.
We understand that there is considerable debate over whether national standards are appropriate for wastewater and other discharges and, if so, to what exactly they should be applied. It is not the place of this report to make recommendations in this regard.
13.5 Roads
Transit and other road controlling authorities collect extensive amounts of information on the roads sector. All of this information could be available to the Government in developing policy. Drawing on a limited number of these, we suggest that, at a high level, road performance can be tracked with the following indicators:
- Safety: road fatalities per million vehicle kilometres
- The quality of maintenance can be assessed with a road-smoothness measure: Proportion of road length with a NAASRA count greater than given thresholds.
- The most immediate environmental impact from road transport is emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions can be measured in aggregate through the total CO2 tonne equivalent per annum, and the CO2 gram equivalent per vehicle kilometre travelled. Similar measures relating to other chemical compounds can be used in the case of local air quality.
- Efficiency of capital allocation can be assessed through an achievement index, although these are not currently regularly published in New Zealand. These compare the Benefit: Cost ratio of projects prior to construction with the Benefit:Cost ratio actually achieved.
- Congestion, for defined transport corridors:
- A congestion indicator can be used which measures minutes delay per kilometre travelled, based on periodic surveys.
- Air quality in congested areas.
Other indicators in the road sector might include:
- Average commuting distance to work
- Lengths of alternative mode works, such as bus lanes and cycle lanes;
- The amount of parking spaces in city central business districts
13.6 Rail
The pressing issue with the rail sector is the condition and capability of the infrastructure. We suggest that the priority for indicators in the first instance is on measures of infrastructure condition and service quality. A number of specific measures could be used, but in the interests of practicality, we suggest the following:
- Average age of key infrastructure components on the major routes, compared to the average expected life (rails, sleepers, turnouts, structural bridge components).
- Number of each key component replaced per year, compared to theoretical replacement levels.
- Track Ride Index. Tranz Rail's "track recording car" measures and records a number of geometric and dynamic parameters under load and from these calculates an index that can be used to monitor changes in service quality.
- Number of planned and unplanned interruptions to service arising from infrastructure failures; also time of delay and rectification.
13.7 Airports
Airports are subject to strict safety and security regulation, and to considerable commercial pressure from customers to maintain key assets (particularly runways) in acceptable operating condition. The International Air Transport Association ("IATA"), Airports Council International and Air Transport Action Group undertake profiles of airport capacity and demand. This would provide a basis for undertaking a detailed benchmarking study, should that be required. For the purposes of policy frameworks, such information is generally far too detailed. Of greater importance is to understand the following:
- Air traffic control
- Airtrack capacity, utilisation and potential scalability
- Airports
- Maximum size of plane that can use runways (ordinary commercial use, rather than emergencies) (fully loaded and with weight restrictions)
- Actual maximum size of plane and average size of plane using airport on routine commercial flights.72
- Runway capacity utilisation: IFR movements (i.e. take-offs and landing) at airports (average and peak) compared to theoretical maximums.
- Theoretical terminal capacity, average and peak utilisation.
13.8 Ports
As for airports, ports can be benchmarked on a wide range of operational capabilities and activity levels. Again, such detailed information is unlikely to assist with infrastructure policy development. As for airports, we suggest that a few key measures are tracked:
- Maximum vessel size able to use the port (although caution needs to be used as, in relation to draught, this varies with load and tide).
- Maximum vessel size and averages actually using the port.
- Berth Occupancy, potentially by cargo type (container, bulk, specialist).
As for airports, a port's capacity over time is as much driven by shipping schedules and movements as it is by the theoretical cargo handling capacity of the port itself.
13.9 Telecommunications
New Zealand's telecommunications networks are (in the main) privately owned. This places limits on the type of information that it is likely to be possible to collect.
The International Telecommunications Union maintains a substantial number of indicators and in October 2003 released the latest version of its World Telecommunication Indicators Database (7th Edition). This survey includes New Zealand, and could provide some benchmarking data of use in policy development.
In relation to the Government's growth and sustainable development objectives and concern over any "Digital Divide" (which would have elements of physical infrastructure availability, but also skills and other factors), the critical indicators are likely to be:
- The availability of services:
- Proportion of households/businesses able to access services (voice, dial-up, broadband, mobile (2G and 3G)).
- Take up of services:
- Actual utilisation of services (voice, dial-up, broadband, mobile (2G and 3G)).
Ideally, this data would be available on a regional or Territorial Authority basis, but it may only be possible to obtain it on a national basis. Take-up of such services could be relatively easily benchmarked against international performance, via the International Telecoms Union or other indicator-collecting bodies such as EuroStat.
The take-up of services will be intimately linked to their pricing. The Ministry will therefore also want to track service pricing (although this tends to be a complex process, given the plethora of service packages made available by telecoms operators).
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