What lies beneath: Mapping U of T Mississauga's invisible infrastructure
At the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM), you can stand anywhere on campus and see a story unfolding — students moving between classes, researchers at work, buildings shaping the skyline.
But the most important part of that story is the one you can’t see. Beneath every walkway and beside every road lies a network of infrastructure quietly supporting campus life — pipes, sewers, energy infrastructure and connections built over decades. When managed effectively, these essential elements of infrastructure keep our campus safe, accessible and resilient.
Through the development of UTM’s inaugural Linear Asset Management Plan (LAMP), the Asset Management Office is redefining how campus infrastructure is understood, managed and sustained. What began as an effort to catalogue roads, sidewalks and buried utilities has evolved into a data-driven framework that’s transforming decision-making across campus.
Where it started
Sameem Shah is the Senior Manager, Infrastructure and Asset Management at UTM. When he joined UTM in 2023, his goal was to develop an integrated asset management program that would enable our campus to support world-class teaching, learning and research for generations to come.
Under the leadership of Ahmed Azhari, Managing Director, Operations, Sustainability and Asset Management, Shah challenged his team with the question: what do we know about our infrastructure and is it enough to plan for the future? And that’s when they discovered the first roadblock.
“We found that any and all information about our infrastructure lived in fragments,” says Shah. “From archived drawings to dated spreadsheets, critical knowledge about our infrastructure existed mostly in people’s heads.”
So before the team could start mapping out an asset management plan, a deep data dive was needed. Co-ordinating across operational departments, the team gathered data and validated in the field, deliberately challenging assumptions about existing data. Next, they surveyed students, faculty, staff and librarians and gained valuable insight on the community’s awareness of and satisfaction with our linear assets and how they’re maintained.
“We weren’t just collecting data,” says Shah. “We were rebuilding confidence in it.”
From fragmentation to clarity
What followed was months of hands-on work. Assets were verified on-site. Data was cross-checked, cleaned and structured. Systems that had never spoken to each other were brought together. Steadily and methodically, the team pieced together a complete picture of campus.
Through this effort, the invisible took shape. Using geospatial tools, the team developed an interactive digital twin of UTM — mapping roads, sidewalks, water systems and underground infrastructure. And then they attached meaning to it: condition, lifecycle, risk and cost.
Shifting decision-making
As the picture became clearer, so did the impact. Conversations across the university began to change. Instead of asking “What do we have?” leadership started asking: What needs attention first? Where’s the biggest risk? What happens if we wait?
The shift from reactive to proactive was one of LAMP’s most important outcomes. With reliable data now in place, the team can model scenarios, test funding strategies and assess the long-term impact of decisions before they’re made — ultimately reducing uncertainty in long-term planning.
Says Azhari: “For the first time, we’re not just responding to issues — we’re anticipating them with confidence.”
Breaking silos, aligning teams
Before LAMP, information was siloed across the university. Different teams worked with different datasets, introducing risk of inconsistencies and inefficiencies.
The Asset Management team broke down those silos. They integrated data, aligned systems and perhaps most importantly, brought people into the same conversation.
“LAMP gave us more than data,” says Shah. “It gave us a common language. Now, whether you’re in planning, project management or operations, you’re looking at the same picture.”
This shared understanding has strengthened collaboration across campus, making project delivery smoother and decision-making more transparent.
More than a plan
LAMP is ultimately a plan, but it represents something more. It reflects a shift in how infrastructure at UTM is understood — not as static assets, but as dynamic systems that require continuous attention, insight and care.
It also reflects the work of a team that said, we can do better. Instead of accepting the fragmented information they inherited, they built a better system — literally from the ground up — leading to clarity, accountability and better decisions campus-wide.
The part you still won’t see
Most people on campus will never think about the watermains beneath the ground or the storm systems working during a heavy rain. And that’s the point. Because when infrastructure is well-managed, it fades into the background — reliable, resilient and ready for whatever comes next. What they will see though is a campus that is fiscally responsible, runs smoother, lasts longer and is better prepared for the future.
