Water Supply Operation Research Articles

Control by the Special Services in the Communal Services of Leningrad and the Labor Discipline (1918 — beginning of the 1930s)

The article examines tense relations between the state, managers, and employees of industrial enterprises, concretely at the Vodokanalizatsiya Trust. The trust was engaged in the design, construction, and operation of water supply and sewage systems, the most important systems for modernizing urban space in the whole of Europe. Technological innovations were to be followed by social changes that could have their own specific traits in relation to other enterprises, since the trust did not belong to any of the most important branches of Soviet industry. Materials from the Central State Archives of St. Petersburg regarding activities of this department in the “Vodokanalizatsiya” trust show that a so-called Secret Department (Sekretnaya chast) or Secret Police, a branch of the OGPU — NKVD, gradually began to play an increasingly important role in managing these enterprises. Through these Secret Departments, new principles of hiring and dismissal from work, as well as imposing disciplinary sanctions, were introduced in the late 1920s. The special attention of the Secret Department was received by so-called “former people,” as well as by representatives of peoples. All this took place under conditions of an acute shortage of skilled labor in Leningrad. Thus, the state’s interests in economic development came into conflict with other interests, which in state literature are labelled as “ideological” and are rarely analyzed in detail. The article discusses the real case of anti-Soviet agitation, of which the central figure was a worker in the communal services of Leningrad. Thus, the role of the OGPU — NKVD in the development of the Soviet industry in the 1930s is studied using the example of the Vodokanalizatsiya Trust.

Social bonds as a tool for financing concession projects in the housing and communal services sector in Rostov oblast, Russia

The article discusses the possibility of using social bonds as the additional sources of financing in the construction and operation of water supply and sanitation facilities under concession agreements. The specifics of social bonds in accordance with the requirements of the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) to social impact projects has been clarified. It is proposed to use the social bonds’ circulation mechanism in the implementation of investment projects for the technological modernization of water supply and sewerage networks in the municipalities of the Rostov region. The liquidity of social bonds will be determined by collateral, which will be the government grants, which the investor will be able to receive only if the stated social goals are achieved. In order to reduce risks and increase the attractiveness of social impact projects, it is proposed to use the RR Regional Development Corporation as a project operator and guarantee fund.

ФІНАНСОВІ АСПЕКТИ РЕКОНСТРУКЦІЇ, БУДІВНИЦТВА І ЕКСПЛУАТАЦІЇ ПІДПРИЄМСТВ ВОДОПОСТАЧАННЯ ТА ВОДОВІДВЕДЕННЯ УКРАЇНИ

UDC 332.02:336.6; JEL Classification: G 31 Purpose. The purpose of the article is to develop theoretical and methodical foundations of financing the reconstruction, construction, operation of water supply and drainage enterprises from the standpoint of research of promising areas for reforming the water supply and drainage services sector in Ukraine. Methodology of research. The following methods were used in the research. The analytical method was used to determine the operational indicators of wastewater treatment in Ukraine. The observation and generalization were relevance for systematize information on sources of financing projects for the reconstruction of wastewater treatment objects in Ukraine. The method of strategic matrix analysis was applied for assessing the modern state of water supply and drainage enterprises activity in the industry context. The system-structural approach was used to highlight the directions of reforming of water supply and drainage enterprises in management system of this industry. Findings. The research considers actual financial aspects of reconstruction, construction and operation of water supply and drainage enterprises in Ukraine. In particular, the sources of financing of wastewater treatment reconstruction projects in Ukraine were analyzed in the context of investment at the state, corporate and other investment levels. A strategic analysis of water supply and drainage enterprises activities in the industry context was carried out using SWOT Matrix as a tool for further building a reform strategy. An enlarged list of directions for reforming the water supply and drainage services sector by technical, technological, natural, socio-economic, political and legal components is proposed. Originality. The theoretical and methodical approach to financing objects of reconstruction, construction and operation of water supply and drainage of Ukraine within the activities of water supply and drainage enterprises was further developed by identifying the reforming directions of designated sphere by technical, technological, natural, socio-economic and political-legal components, the details of which are based on the results of strategic analysis. Practical value. The results of the research can be used as guidelines for the development of regional and local programs for the reconstruction, construction and operation of water supply and drainage enterprises.

Multi-objective Route Planning for Underwater Cleaning Robot in Water Reservoir Tank

Underwater tank cleaning using robotic method is very crucial due to the concern on the diver’s safety in undisrupted water supply operation. A Remotely Operated Underwater Vehicles (ROV) used in the tank cleaning operation however, suffers from a high operational cost due to the lack of systematic operator guidance in robot maneuvering. This paper presents a multi-objective approach in designing a Decision Support System (DSS) for underwater cleaning robot. To explore all feasible path, the path alternatives for every cleaning point in the tank is found using Probabilistic Roadmap (PRM). Then, an optimized sequential route are identified using Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm using Reference Point Based (NSGA-III). Several objectives such as path length and routing angle are considered to be optimized, while ensuring constraints such as similar deployment point, maximum daily time limit and cable entanglement. To measure the quality of the proposed solution, comparisons have been done based on performance of NSGA-III with Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) and Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) by considering the C-Metric value, execution time and estimated cleaning duration. In addition, comparisons with conventional path by human operator is also conducted to validate the significance of DSS application in underwater tank cleaning. Results have shown that NSGA-III has superiorities with an improvement of 11.11% in cleaning time as compared to NSGA-II and 5.12% improvement compared to MOPSO.

El derecho humano al agua en España en el contexto europeo (2010-2020). Implicaciones para las políticas y los modelos de gestión del ciclo urbano

El derecho humano al abastecimiento y al saneamiento (DHAS) constituye hoy en España y en Europa la bandera de un movimiento que se articula en torno al concepto del agua como bien común y que se orienta al objetivo de construir un modelo de gestión pública participativa y transparente. La materialización efectiva del DHAS se relaciona discursivamente con la titularidad pública o privada de los operadores de los servicios urbanos de agua, lo que ha contribuido a la reactivación de los debates sobre la necesidad de conservar o recuperar el carácter público de estos servicios, y sobre la necesidad de generar marcos jurídicos que garanticen políticas de democracia local efectiva. A esta dimensión sociopolítica, se añade otra característica: el movimiento del DHAS en España sintoniza en discurso y articulación organizativa con las perspectivas socio-eco-integradoras de la gestión del agua como recurso natural, de los ecosistemas acuáticos. Ésta es una cualidad importante y en cierta manera distintiva de la experiencia española, que contrasta con los desencuentros y conflictos que frecuentemente caracterizan a las perspectivas social y ambiental en los movimientos de defensa del agua, y en general de los recursos naturales. Complementariamente a lo anterior, este artículo presenta un nuevo enfoque de la tipología de pobrezas hídricas. La reciente recepción del DHAS en los países europeos se ha focalizado especialmente en la asequibilidad (prohibición de cortes, garantía del mínimo vital, tarifas sociales) y en las implicaciones para la gobernanza (transparencia, rendición de cuentas) y el modelo de gestión (publico versus privado). No obstante, a lo largo de la investigación que se presenta, se ha constatado que la accesibilidad sigue siendo un problema significativo en ciertas regiones europeas, relacionado especialmente con la existencia de asentamientos marginales, chabolismo, personas sin hogar o trabajadores temporeros inmigrantes en áreas rurales. Finalmente, este artículo aborda la cuestión de la regulación legal del derecho humano al agua en España, analizando las claves de este proceso y presentando las últimas propuestas del movimiento del DHAS en el que sus autores conceptualmente se sitúan. Desde un punto de vista teórico (ecología política urbana) y metodológico (investigación-acción participativa transdisciplinar), el artículo se ha desarrollado en el doble marco en el que los autores se desenvuelven. Por una parte, el grupo de trabajo de ciclo urbano del agua de la Fundación Nueva Cultura de Agua (https://fnca.eu/oppa/ciclo-urbano-del-agua); y, por otra, la Red de Excelencia de la Agencia Estatal de Investigación sobre pobreza hídrica (WAPONET, CSO2017-90702-REDT, https://waponet.org/approach/).

The Florida Water and Climate Alliance (FloridaWCA): Developing a Stakeholder–Scientist Partnership to Create Actionable Science in Climate Adaptation and Water Resource Management

AbstractThe Florida Water and Climate Alliance (FloridaWCA) is a stakeholder–scientist partnership committed to increasing the relevance of climate science data and tools at time and space scales needed to support decision-making in water resource management, planning, and supply operations in Florida. Since 2010, a group of university researchers, public utility water resource managers and operators, water management district personnel, and local planners have engaged in a sustained collaboration for the development, sharing, and application of cutting-edge research to the practical issues of water management and distribution in the highly urbanized state of Florida. The authors, all members of FloridaWCA, present a case study of the organization’s history, its achievements, and lessons learned at the organizational, scientific/technical, and personal levels. Their goals are to 1) describe how the organizational process has contributed to actionable science based on posing and answering questions of importance; 2) share its scientific impact and technical contributions; 3) demonstrate the value of such a stakeholder–scientist partnership, and 4) identify organizational and structural components that have influenced its effectiveness, including personal reflections. The FloridaWCA, having reached its tenth anniversary, continues to evolve today as a sustained stakeholder–scientist partnership resulting in both guiding researchers of what is applicable in the field (creating an area of research that is useful to society) while also helping the practitioners to push the envelope on the state-of-the practices that can be informed by current research.

Performance evaluation for urban water supply services in China

Abstract Performance evaluation of water supply has become one of the hot issues of continuous concern in the water industry in recent years. Based on advanced international experience and the actual situation of China's water supply operation management, this paper combined quantitative indicator evaluation with the qualitative evaluation of good practices, and established a comprehensive performance evaluation method, which is suitable for China's national conditions. The system carried out a regional demonstration study and achieved good results, which will lay the foundation for the application of performance assessment of water supply in China.

Factors affecting operation and maintenance cost recovery of urban water supply: An evidence from an eastern Indian states

Factors affecting operation and maintenance cost recovery of urban water supply: An evidence from an eastern Indian states

Optimization and validation of pumping system design and operation for water supply in high-rise buildings

The application of mathematical optimization methods for water supply system design and operation provides the capacity to increase the energy efficiency and to lower the investment costs considerably. We present a system approach for the optimal design and operation of pumping systems in real-world high-rise buildings that is based on the usage of mixed-integer nonlinear and mixed-integer linear modeling approaches. In addition, we consider different booster station topologies, i.e. parallel and series-parallel central booster stations as well as decentral booster stations. To confirm the validity of the underlying optimization models with real-world system behavior, we additionally present validation results based on experiments conducted on a modularly constructed pumping test rig. Within the models we consider layout and control decisions for different load scenarios, leading to a Deterministic Equivalent of a two-stage stochastic optimization program. We use a piecewise linearization as well as a piecewise relaxation of the pumps’ characteristics to derive mixed-integer linear models. Besides the solution with off-the-shelf solvers, we present a problem specific exact solving algorithm to improve the computation time. Focusing on the efficient exploration of the solution space, we divide the problem into smaller subproblems, which partly can be cut off in the solution process. Furthermore, we discuss the performance and applicability of the solution approaches for real buildings and analyze the technical aspects of the solutions from an engineer’s point of view, keeping in mind the economically important trade-off between investment and operation costs.

Performance Measurement of Water Supply Services: A Cross-Country Comparison between India and the UK.

Increased emphasis on efficiency improvements has brought the benefits of internal savings and improved service deliveries of water supplies to the developed countries. However, water supply services in developing countries often exhibit large inefficiencies making it difficult to expand coverage or improve supply services. A comparative assessment of efficiencies in the developed and developing countries is therefore essential to estimate the actual lag that developing countries typically experience, and to arrive at an estimate of their efficiency improvements. This manuscript makes an effort in this direction by undertaking a cross-country benchmarking study on the level of inefficiencies prevailing in Indian urban water supply services (IUWSS) relative to the utilities in the UK-England and Wales. This manuscript uses data envelopment analysis approach to measure relative efficiencies of water supplies for a sample of 30 water utilities in India and the UK-England and Wales for the year 2015. The results indicate that there exist significant technical and scale inefficiencies in water supply operations of Indian municipalities compared with the UK-England and Wales. DEA results also show a significant scope for savings with respect to operating expenditures and non-revenue water, if Indian utilities were to adopt the best practices and managerial tools of the utilities in the UK-England and Wales. Further, it was found that IUWSS need a restructuring of their municipalities to become more efficient. This manuscript discusses the above results in the context of policy implications and suggests few mechanisms that are relevant from a developing country perspective for possible improvement in water supply services.

A comparative study of statistical and machine learning methods to infer causes of pipe breaks in water supply networks

ABSTRACT Water supply pipes age, deteriorate and break, which puts at risk the continuous provision of safe potable water endangering the public health in cities. Risk management methods are increasingly applied to optimise the capital investment for pipe replacement and rehabilitation, taking into account the probability and hydraulic impact of pipe breaks. As part of this process, however, historic pipe break data and statistical methods should be utilised to gather causal insights for past breaks to inform operational changes and/or capital investment decisions in order to reduce future breaks. This paper presents a comparative study of statistical and machine learning methods to carry out an exploratory causal analysis for historic pipe breaks in an operational water supply network. Regression models for count data and probabilistic models have been developed. The performance of these models was assessed and enhanced with the introduction of interactions and the inclusion of different network representations.

Energy efficiency of multi-apartment residential houses with individual heat supply

The aim of this work is to study the functioning of heating and hot water systems of the discussed houses, to find the reasons for increased energy consumption. Four energy-efficient houses in the Brest region (Republic of Belarus) with apartment heat supply and a mechanical ventilation system with heat recovery were selected as the object of study. The research methodology of the heating and hot water supply systems of the houses consisted of the following stages: study of project documentation; thermal imaging inspection of building structures and instrumental studies of the operation of heating systems and hot water supply; questionnaire of residents to analyze the nature of their use of the studied systems; processing received data. The values of the operational specific consumption of thermal energy for heating were determined, which doubled the design values equal to 43 kW·h/m2. The main reasons for the excess of the operating specific consumption of thermal energy for heating and ventilation over the design value is the increased heating season compared to the design average for a month and the maintenance of elevated indoor air temperatures in apartments, on average, at +21°C, which leads to increased heat losses. The functioning of the hot water supply system of energy-efficient houses is generally satisfactory for the used design solution, but sometimes due to the specific appartments’ planning leads to an excessive consumption of water and causes dissatisfaction of residents with a long waiting time for hot water with required temperature. Studies have shown that currently, the existing tariff policy in the Republic of Belarus due to low tariffs for gas and thermal energy for the population does not contribute to the efficient use of energy-efficient solutions by the masses of the population, which leads to an excessive consumption of thermal energy in modern residential buildings.

Use of Groundwater Level Fluctuations near an Operating Water Supply Well to Estimate Aquifer Transmissivity.

We developed a method to estimate aquifer transmissivity from the hydraulic-head data associated with the normal cyclic operation of a water supply well thus avoiding the need for interrupting the water supply associated with a traditional aquifer test. The method is based on an analytical solution that relates the aquifer's transmissivity to the standard deviation of the hydraulic-head fluctuations in one or more observation wells that are due to the periodic pumping of the production well. We analyzed the resulting analytical solution and demonstrated that when the observation wells are located near the pumping well, the solution has a simple, Dupuit like form. Numerical analysis demonstrates that the analytical solution can also be used for a quasi-periodic pumping of the supply well. Simulation of cyclic pumping in a statistically heterogeneous medium confirms that the method is suitable for analyzing the transmissivity of weakly or moderately heterogeneous aquifers. If only one observation well is available, and the shift in the phase of hydraulic-head oscillations between the pumping well and the observation well is not identifiable. Prior knowledge of aquifer's hydraulic diffusivity is required to obtain the value of the aquifer transmissivity.

Reservoir Inflow Synchronization Analysis for Four Reservoirs on a Mainstream and its Tributaries in Flood Season Based on a Multivariate Copula Model

To meet flood control demand, many reservoirs have been built successively in China for many years. Reservoir inflow synchronization analysis for multiple reservoirs in the flood season can provide a reference for the formulation of the joint water supply operation plan and improve the utilization efficiency of water resources. In this paper, a two-dimensional copula model is used to analyze the reservoir inflow synchronization between a single reservoir on a tributary and the reservoir on the mainstream of the river in the flood season. Based on the obtained results, a R-vine copula model is established by selecting a suitable structure to analyze the multidimensional joint reservoir inflow synchronization for multiple reservoirs in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River basin in the flood season. For four selected reservoirs in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River basin in China as a case study, the frequencies of synchronous wetness and synchronous dryness for the four reservoirs are 15.106% and 15.209%, respectively. The research results can serve as a reference for actual scheduling.

Operational Seasonal Water Supply and Water Level Forecasting for the Laurentian Great Lakes

AbstractSeasonal water supply forecasts are a critical component of regional water resources management planning. Across the United States, multiple modeling tools and operational protocols have ev...

Economic Analysis of Integrated Ground Source Heat Pumps on a Shared Ground Loop

An integrated geothermal system in which heat pumps for air conditioning and hot water both share the same ground loop was proposed in our previous study. Although this system produced electricity savings of 15% compared to a conventional system in which the two heat pumps operated on their own ground loop, practical requirements regarding further lowering the operation cost of the integrated geothermal system and the possibility of the energy savings being low during winter initiated further investigation into potential energy conservation measures at no initial cost increase, if possible. Outdoor reset control for hot water supply and sequential heat pump operation, both of which could be included at no extra cost, were subsequently targeted as potential measures for greater electricity savings and economic feasibility. When these measures were incorporated into the integrated geothermal system, electricity savings of approximately 25% during the heating season compared to the conventional system were predicted. Eventually it led to annual electricity savings of about 25% compared to the conventional system, which is up to 9.6 million South Korean won a year at today’s rates. Additionally, it reached the break-even point earlier than one year after installation.

Justification of the parameters of developing water supply and sanitation systems based on their electronic models

Most of the water supply and sanitation systems of modern cities and populated areas of the Russian Federation are characterized by significant physical depreciation, which is estimated at 60%., Significant moral depreciation, since some structures and pipelines are almost a hundred years old or more. At the same time, the replacement of old equipment is carried out annually at a rate of 2%. Such unsatisfactory rates of renovation are due to the lack of adequate funding and their irrational allocation to the construction of new ones, reconstruction and development of existing pipelines and structures. Obviously, to solve this problem, new and integrated approaches, new technologies for the design, construction and operation of water supply and sanitation systems are needed. One of such approaches is proposed in the work, based on digital technologies using electronic models of water supply and sanitation systems, on the basis of which methods for modeling operating modes and optimization methods for design solutions for the development of networks and structures have been developed. The results of applying the proposed technology on the example of water supply and sanitation in the city of Nizhneudinsk, Irkutsk region.

A Short-Term Planning Framework for the Operation of Tanker-Based Water Distribution Systems in Urban Areas

Tanker-based distribution systems have been prevalent in developing countries to supply clean and pure water in different regions. To efficiently operate such tanker service systems, a large fleet of tanker trucks are required to transport water among several water sources, water treatment plants and consumers spanning across the regions. This requires tighter coordination between water suppliers, treatment plant operations, and user groups to use available water resources in a sustainable manner, along with the assurance of water quality and timely delivery. This paper proposes a novel formulation to assist decision-making for optimizing tanker-based water distribution systems and treatment operations, with an overall objective of minimizing the total operating cost such that all of the constraints related to the water demand, supply operations, and environmental and social aspects are honored while supplying water to a maximum number of users. The problem is formulated and solved as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) optimization framework and captures all of the nuances related to (i) water availability limitations and quality constraints from different sources, (ii) maintaining water quality as it transports via tankers, (iii) water demands for various end-use purposes, and (iv) transportation across a water supply chain. The proposed novel framework is applied to a realistic urban model to find the optimal tanker delivery schedule, ensuring appropriate treatment and timely delivery of water. The results of the case study conducted on a representative-scale problem also elucidate several aspects of treatment plant operation and consumer demand fulfillment for the efficient planning and management of tanker-based water distribution systems.

Urban Multi-Source Water Supply in China: Variation Tendency, Modeling Methods and Challenges

Urban water resources are the basis for the formation and development of cities and the source of urban water supply. However, with the acceleration of urbanization and the explosion of urban populations, the contradiction between water supply and demand in some areas, especially in big cities, has become increasingly prominent. It is simply not sufficient to rely on local conventional water resources to meet urban water demand, and a single source water supply mode has a higher vulnerability, resulting in greater safety risks in urban or regional water supply systems. Therefore, giving full play to the water supply capacity and carrying out multi-source water supplies are necessary and urgent. This paper gives an overview of the optimal allocation of multi-source for urban water supply concerning variation tendency, modeling methods and facing challenges. Based on the variation tendency of water consumption and water supply pattern in China, Tianjin is taken as a typical city for systematically outlining water supply changes and cause analysis. Subsequently, the modeling methods for proposing the optimal allocation scheme are summarized, which are composed of defining the topological relation, constructing the mathematical model and seeking the optimal solution. Ultimately, the current and emerging challenges are discussed including emergency operation of multi-source water supply and joint operation of water quality and quantity. These summaries and prospects provide a valuable reference for giving full play to the multi-source water supply capacity and carrying out relevant research so as to propose the optimal allocation scheme in urban multi-source water supply systems.

Optimization of Water Distribution to Support the Balance of Water Usage: A Case Study of the Sempor Irrigation System, Central Java, Indonesia

The existence of irrigation in Indonesia is commonly quite influenced by environmental and social cultural characteristics, which the people have lived by and developed for a long time. Many factors cause changes in the pattern of water availability, which increases competition among stakeholders, as in the Sempor irrigation system area. It has four main dams, which are the Bojong Dam, Watubarut Dam, Rowokawuk Dam, and Sindut Dam; it provides approximately 5900 ha of services and receives supplies from the Great Sempor Dam (38 million m3). Currently there is a decline in the function of this dam due to sedimentation, making operational services less optimal, especially during the dry season. The methodology of this study is to perform water optimization for the balancing of water in the irrigation area. Meanwhile, the implementation of the water supply on the field considers the calculation of water availability, space, and time. In practice, the operation of water supply is held by a group system in the secondary blocks. In certain conditions, the water rotation in tertiary channels was performed by local cultural wisdom.