A methodology for integrating virtual water data into life cycle cost in the Malaysia's water infrastructure sector

Water infrastructures are crucial assets for the nation's development that are purposely designed and built to deliver essential services for supporting economic growth, public health, and environmental sustainability. However, Malaysia’s water sector faces mounting challenges, including aging infrastructure, water scarcity, and inefficiencies in cost management. In response to these concerns, the Water Sector Transformation 2040 (WST 2040) roadmap was introduced to realign the water industry towards digitalization, sustainability, and resource optimization. Nevertheless, the existing practices of life cycle cost economic assessment technique remain fragmented and often overlook virtual water that refers to the indirect water consumption throughout the entire service life of water infrastructure. This paper presents a methodology proposed for the study to investigate readiness of cost data as inputs into the integration of virtual water data into the Life Cycle Cost (LCC) practice in supporting more informed and sustainable planning with specific reference to Malaysia's water infrastructure assets. The proposed methodology is designed with a qualitative research strategy, combining a comprehensive literature review with semi-structured interview approach to interview people who have established knowledge, expertise, skills, or experience in virtual water, data integration and water infrastructure planning. The study focuses on exploring the current data availability, quality, and limitations, including the identification of strategic pathways for incorporating virtual water into the LCC practices. The study findings are intended to serve as a foundational input for future data driven framework that can facilitate the stakeholders and cost estimators in Malaysia’s water sector to produce more accurate cost estimation and enhance water resource governance to align the Malaysia’s WST 2040 goals with the Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6) in achieving sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.