Identifying the High-level Flow Model of Water Distribution Networks Using Graph Theory

Abstract

Identifying the main connections between water production, processing and distribution sites can give a clearer comprehension of their structure, importance and criticality. We present a graph-theory based approach which is able to dramatically reduce the complexity of a network to allow a better comprehension of its main flow models. As a starting point, some nodes in the network are marked as primary;A skeletonization procedure then reduces the graph excluding all the pipes which are not essential to connect the primary nodes. The network is further analysed to define a single path between couples of primary nodes. An efficient implementation (in Python+IGraph) is discussed, along with performance improvements. The results can be employed to understand the flow model of a previously unknown network or as a first step to determine its most vulnerable or important elements.