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This study proposes a data-based strategy for prioritizing sewerage services and developing consumer-centric asset management systems. Sewerage systems are essential infrastructure, but resource-intensive, and governments have faced challenges due to limited budgets and aging facilities. Most countries are still in the early stages of adopting consumer-centric approaches. By using the mixed logit model, this study identified heterogeneous service preferences among consumers based on their priority for physical and social services. Groups who attributed their importance to physical services were more sensitive to sewerage bills; however, those who emphasized social services were more interested in water activity environment improvement and odor intensity reduction. This study also showed that people are willing to pay USD 10 for odor intensity reduction and USD 6 for water activities improvement on average, but those who prioritized sinkhole reduction and flood reduction answered less willingness to pay for each service improvement. Applying these heterogeneous service preferences to service improvement strategies can lead not only to higher consumer satisfaction and lower economic burden, but also to a deeper understanding of residents’ willingness to pay for service improvement in certain service preference areas. Therefore, the results contribute to the development of sustainable asset management strategies.

In most developed countries, such as the USA, the E.U., and East Asia, the importance of public infrastructure asset management has been stressed for a long time. Among the various types of public infrastructure, sewerage systems are one of the most cost-intensive facilities to manage. Sewerage systems are considered highly difficult to manage due to the undetermined level of service needed, different standards of user satisfaction, and the large gap of service understanding between experts and users. To address these issues, this study aims to define the appropriate target level of service improvement by combining consumers’ expected level of service and complaint data. In this study, the case of the inland flood management project in South Korea is investigated because of the global trend of increasing flood damage. The complaint data represent the frequency of flood damage in the area. Using the contingent valuation method, we found that people want to use 25% of their current monthly sewage bill on the management project. In addition, the results of this study demonstrate that people prefer to deal with the problems caused by old service infrastructure when it can be handled at a lower cost during early stages.

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