Optimization of Drinking Water Distribution Systems in Relation to the Effects of Climate Change

Mario Maiolo,Giuseppe Mendicino,Alfonso Senatore,Daniela Pantusa

doi:10.3390/w9100803

Mario Maiolo, Giuseppe Mendicino + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/w9100803

Copy DOI

Abstract

Proper water resources management involves the analysis and resolution of various optimization problems according to climate change effects on the availability and distribution of the resources themselves. Specifically, these conditions require the identification of new resource allocation optimization solutions capable of taking into account the water resource losses due to climate change scenarios. As is well known, Southern Italy is a region that is potentially very sensitive to climate change. In this paper, a 1717 km2 area, corresponding to the province of Crotone, was analyzed as a study case. This area is characterized by a sufficient availability of resources as a whole as compared to the needs of the users, but has an unbalanced distribution of water through its various systems. After identifying water resource allocations in detail for this area, an optimization solution accounting for the expected reduced availability of water resources in the context of climate change was created and was compared with the optimization solution for current water availability.

Highlights

Climate change is advancing globally [1], and its impacts are growing on our planet
This paper identifies and compares water resource optimization solutions achieved in the province of Crotone (Calabria region, Southern Italy) through the redefinition of the distribution system, taking into account both current water availability and possible future reduction in water availability due to the scenarios projected by climate change analyses
Climate change impact has been assessed by means of a simulation provided by the COSMO-Climate Limited-area Modeling (CCLM) [27] Regional Climate Model (RCM) using the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 [28] in the context of the EURO-CORDEX initiative

Summary

Introduction

Climate change is advancing globally [1], and its impacts are growing on our planet. Increasing pressure on water distribution, in terms of growing demand and decreasing availability due to climate change, require the adoption of appropriate optimization strategies in order to develop correct and efficient management of available resources. Optimization methods have been widely applied in water resources problems and many optimization models have been developed. These state-of-the-art models have been reviewed by several authors [3,4,5,6,7]. Optimization of water systems follows different approaches, changing with the scale on which the system is analyzed, and various types of optimization techniques have been proposed

Methods

Results

Conclusion