• Waterloss

  Waterloss management, GIS, DSS, ... Read More

• AMR

  Automatic meter reading, ... Read More

• Fragility

  Component and network vulnerability, ... Read More

Urban Water Distribution Networks

The problem of aging infrastructure and of associated water losses in urban water distribution networks has been one of the biggest infrastructure problems facing city and municipal authorities and a major task in their efforts to achieve efficient and sustainable management of water resources. Interestingly enough and as a measure of the magnitude of the problem, the unaccounted-for wa- ter is in the range of 20% to 30% even in developed countries, whereas in developing countries this percentage is even higher (as reported by the International Water Association, IWA).

According to studies found in literature for example, water losses in France's water distribution network have been estimated at an average of 26%, in UK at 19%, in Italy 29% and in Cyprus 25-30%. Yet, local communities have poor prediction tools to prioritize how essential infrastructure investment is conducted and to dynamically account for the water consumption at households and in the network in general.

How can UWDN owners/operators reliably and continously evaluate the performance of their piped networks and reach intelligent ‘repair-or-replace’ decisions in real time? How can we learn from nature and how can technology help?

One of the main issues in mitigating the effects of pipeline failures is the in-advance identification of pipe vulnerabilities and the implementation of suitable rehabilitation and prevention procedures. Furthermore, the online measuring of water consumption could allow Water Boards to dynamically monitor the water balance in the networks, to detect water losses as they occur, to implement virtual water and water-pricing policies based on consumption, and to enforce water saving measures devised on volumetric consumption, water quota, and online monitoring.

A lot of research has already been carried out and documented in literature on a variety of techniques for waterloss management. This web-section describes some of the studies on UWDN performed at the EUPALINOS Lab. Among the many topics related to water distribution networks that interest us, are topics in:

• waterloss management,
• mathematical, numerical and neurofuzzy modeling of risk-of-failure metrics,
• spatio-temporal analysis and GIS,
• decision support systems,
• repair-or-replace management strategies,
• leak detection and sensor development,
• waterloss dispersion in soils,
• sensor placement optimization,
• automatic meter reading (AMR),
• component and network reliability of UWDN,
• hydraulic modeling and pressure management,
• intermittent water supply.