Abstract
Cities rely heavily on the services provided by water distribution networks. These networks are large and complex, consisting of thousands of kilometres of buried pipes and dozens of facilities where water is treated, pumped and stored. Infrastructure managers are entrusted with the planning and execution of interventions on these assets to ensure that the provided service exceeds the minimum levels mandated by stakeholders at all times. This is a difficult task due to the spatial extent of these networks, shrinking budgets and the complexity of coordinating with multiple stakeholders. Previously, Kerwin and Adey presented an approach to address these concerns, using a small example network, leaving open the question of how this approach would work on a large real-world network. This paper fills this gap by discussing the simplifications needed to apply the methodology to a larger network and demonstrating its advantages with three applications: (a) estimating the budget requirements needed to implement various intervention strategies, (b) communicating project-level trade-offs of different intervention strategies and budget scenarios and (c) investigating how the intervention-planning activities of other networks could affect these estimates. The methodology is demonstrated on a large distribution network consisting of 14 pressure zones for a 5-year period.
Highlights
Modern societies have grown accustomed to reliable and affordable access to potable, pressurised water in sufficient quantity
Concrete examples are needed to illustrate how digitalisation can be further exploited in intervention planning. This paper addresses this gap in a practical manner by discussing the simplifications made to the methodology presented by Kerwin and Adey (2020)
This paper builds on the work presented by Kerwin and Adey (2020)
Summary
Modern societies have grown accustomed to reliable and affordable access to potable, pressurised water in sufficient quantity This essential service depends on infrastructure managers, who plan and execute corrective and preventive interventions on network components to maintain an adequate level of service. The size of modern water distribution networks (WDNs) results in an immense number of theoretically possible intervention programmes Evaluating these alternatives exhaustively is often impractical due to the associated computational effort. Decision makers are interested in investigating sources of uncertainty, which requires performing numerous analyses in a reasonable time period Examples of such sources of uncertainty include the models used to calculate the costs and benefits of executing preventive interventions, the associated model parameters and how these will change in the future due to socio-economic trends, climate change and technological innovation. Exploiting digitalisation to plan interventions on large water distribution networks Kerwin and Adey requirements needed to implement various intervention strategies, (b) communicating the trade-offs of different strategies and budget scenarios and (c) investigating how the intervention-planning activities of other networks could affect these estimations
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
