The water industry depends on continuous improvement to deliver safer, more reliable water services. In pursuing those improvements, water professionals have expanded their reliance on data-driven approaches, but utilities need more high-quality data to support their decisions and provide metrics to track their progress. Better utility planning and operation, based on science and supported by experience, will lead to better water quality and happier customers.

AWWA's Water and Wastewater Rate Survey collects key rate, financial, and utility operating information, while the AWWA Compensation Survey provides an extensive compilation of salary and compensation data for water and wastewater professionals. Likewise, AWWA uses its State of the Water Industry survey to benchmark professional attitudes and to identify future challenges and opportunities.

As discussed in this month's cover story, AWWA's Utility Bench-marking Program collects and analyzes data across a range of utility types, regions, and sizes to provide an informative set of performance indicators based on current and historical trends. Utility managers can take this kind of approach to track their progress and understand how their systems compare with others. Lee County Utilities and its team used its operational data to establish performance metrics, then compared its performance with similar utilities and identified ways to improve its efficiency and resilience. Benchmarking helps utilities assess their performance, validate internal measures, gain stakeholder confidence, and support performance improvement initiatives.

Another feature article this month describes how the City of Minneapolis uses levels of service to advance improvements. Levels of service are statements of outputs or objectives that water utilities or their activities intend to deliver to customers and stakeholders; they can help utilities develop performance management programs to monitor their asset management efforts and track overall progress. Besides guiding resources toward critical assets and activities, this approach can be used to organize and motivate staff around organizational goals, track and communicate progress, and define success.

Also featured this month: New Braunfels Utilities applied historical data and staff experience to improving its flood resilience with standard operating procedures and engineered controls. Collecting similar climate-related data now will allow utilities to more effectively plan and budget for adoption in the future.

In the face of growing challenges and sophisticated solutions, water professionals need to stay connected, and Journal AWWA remains a vital source of understanding; please consider sharing your experiences and informed outlooks by contacting me at journaleditor@awwa.org.

水务行业依赖于持续改进来提供更安全、更可靠的水务服务。在追求这些改进的过程中，水务专业人士扩大了对数据驱动方法的依赖，但公用事业公司需要更多高质量的数据来支持他们的决策并提供指标来跟踪他们的进展。以科学为基础并以经验为支持的更好的公用事业规划和运营将带来更好的水质和更满意的客户。

AWWA 的水和废水费率调查收集关键费率、财务和公用事业运营信息，而 AWWA 薪酬调查则提供水和废水处理专业人员的薪资和薪酬数据的广泛汇编。同样，AWWA 利用其水行业状况调查来衡量专业态度并确定未来的挑战和机遇。

正如本月封面故事中所讨论的，AWWA 的公用事业基准测试计划收集并分析各种公用事业类型、地区和规模的数据，以根据当前和历史趋势提供一组信息丰富的绩效指标。公用事业经理可以采用这种方法来跟踪他们的进度并了解他们的系统与其他系统的比较。李县公用事业公司及其团队使用其运营数据来建立绩效指标，然后将其绩效与类似公用事业公司进行比较，并确定提高其效率和弹性的方法。基准测试可帮助公用事业公司评估其绩效、验证内部措施、赢得利益相关者的信心并支持绩效改进计划。

本月的另一篇专题文章介绍了明尼阿波利斯市如何利用服务水平来推进改进。服务水平是水务公司或其活动打算向客户和利益相关者提供的产出或目标的陈述；他们可以帮助公用事业公司制定绩效管理计划，以监控其资产管理工作并跟踪总体进度。除了引导资源用于关键资产和活动之外，这种方法还可用于围绕组织目标组织和激励员工、跟踪和沟通进度以及定义成功。

本月的另一个特色是：新布朗费尔斯公用事业公司应用历史数据和员工经验，通过标准操作程序和工程控制来提高防洪能力。现在收集类似的气候相关数据将使公用事业公司能够更有效地规划和预算未来的采用。

面对日益严峻的挑战和复杂的解决方案，水务专业人士需要保持联系，《AWWA》杂志仍然是重要的理解来源；请考虑通过journaleditor@awwa.org 与我联系，分享您的经验和明智的观点。