Abstract
Incorporating data stored in a geographical information system (GIS) within the development of hydraulic simulation models is crucial for operating, updating, and hence redesigning water supply systems (WSS). Building and updating hydraulic models can be both time and resource consuming; moreover, the need to update infrastructure cadastral information makes the model itself outdated. In addition, typical dispersion of data across several databases requires extra effort to maintain the whole system and ensure it is properly assembled. Albeit there are some GIS-based hydraulic modelling solutions available, they typically use external connections to assemble all components resulting in additional costs and less flexibility. In order to be able to establish a single fully integrated data model towards global characterization of a WSS and associate hydraulic simulation, this paper proposes the specific implementation of an EPANET 2 model in PostgreSQL along with PostGIS extension. The system developed enables the construction of the model, hydraulic simulation, and storage of results within a single database. Required procedures and functions were coded either in pgSQL or Python and their execution were carried out using SQL statements. Finally, a case study was selected in order to test the system proposed. Results show that an integrated approach indeed allows the expedited creation of more realistic hydraulic models based on the stored cadastral information.
Highlights
In order to address some limitations pointed out above, this paper aims at developing a geospatial database capable of storing infrastructure cadastral data referring to the main water supply systems (WSS) components, and capable of storing data required for the dynamic characterization and generation of hydraulic simulation models
To design a conceptual model that enables the characterization of the different WSS components as well as the identification of information required for the hydraulic modelling process;
Computational capabilities, availability, sophistication and interoperability of several geographic information management applications provided geographical information systems (GIS) with the required maturity for its usage both as front-end and back-end in the context of hydraulic modelling. The integration of these avenues, GIS and hydraulic modelling can be defined as the process in which insertion, deletion, or update operations of data stored in the system are reflected on the hydraulic model; in turn, results of the modelling process are managed and stored in the system too
Summary
The design of management and operation methodologies for effective urban water supply systems (WSS) must take into consideration geographical information systems (GIS), which constitute an integrating platform of different sorts of information [1,2]. Georeferenced data characterizing physical components of a WSS (e.g., type of material, diameter, length and installation date of pipes, geolocation and operational state of valves), which can be stored in a GIS, constitute crucial components towards the construction of a hydraulic model Their continuous update turns a given hydraulic model into a misadjusted and less accurate one. We believe that a combined use of such tools, along with appropriate adjustments, enables the construction of seamless integrated GIS-based hydraulic model platforms Such an integrated platform is fundamental for simulation purposes as it allows the derivation of most uncertain variables and the anticipation of the impacts of different long-term perspective scenarios [5]
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