Divide and Conquer Partitioning Techniques for Smart Water Networks

Abstract

Water Network Partitioning (WNP), represents one of the best methodologies for applying water balance and pressure control of a water distribution system to reduce water leakage and improve water quality protection. Traditionally the WNP is based on empirical and ‘trial and error’ approaches used with hydraulic simulation, which are difficult to apply to large water networks. Recently some heuristic procedures, based on different techniques (graph theory, clustering, etc.) showed that is possible to find optimal solutions. The authors developed a software, called SWANP (Smart Water Network Partitioning) that allows finding automatically the optimal layout of District Meter Areas based on a multi-level algorithm. This paper compare SWANP with other procedures for WNP.