It is proposed to develop an innovative web-based platform and courseware for VET on modern practice on preventive maintenance (PM) of urban water distribution networks. Improved maintenance, increased reliability and decreased disruption of service are envisaged. The proposed training program involves: • a theoretical part which includes web-based courseware development. This part will cover the basic principles of PM, benefits, limitations, organizational aspects, etc. Τhe platform will provide flexible and friendly authoring mechanisms, self-teaching and assessment capabilities, course and trainee management. Courses will also be made available as stand-alone multi-lingual multimedia applications on a CD. • a practical part for off-line use which involves software that integrates Geographical Information Systems (GIS), Reliability Analysis (RA) and Database Query (DQ) to determine how ageing and natural hazards affect the reliability of the network under different environmental conditions. The new system will be adapted from a prototype that was developed in an earlier FP5 project and will use real data from a medium sized urban water distribution utility. The system will offer the trainee suggestions on how best to rehabilitate the network and compute the associated cost. The trainee will also be able to examine the effects of different scenarios and learn the most appropriate rehabilitation procedures in case of a natural hazard. The critical objectives of this proposal are to i) provide state of the art training on PM practices, ii) provide training on pro-active rehabilitation and iii) the effects of natural hazards. This is especially relevant for personnel in earthquake-prone regions. The partners will fuse their national experiences and practices to produce a unified curriculum definition, a library of learning content and specifications of the web-based training course. The subject of the course will include conditions, criteria and guidelines for PM.