Sustainable Management of Water Distribution Systems

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 April 2025 | Viewed by 3667

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Interests: urban water systems; water supply and distribution; urban drainage; sewer systems; rainwater harvesting; real time control; sediment transport
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

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Guest Editor Assistant
Department of Civil Engineering and Architecture, University of Catania, Catania, Italy
Interests: water distribution systems; intermittent supply; urban drainage systems; SUDs; hydraulic modelling; hydrological modelling; water leakages

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water distribution systems (WDSs) are complex infrastructures designed to reliably process, store and supply potable water to consumers. Efficient and flexible managing strategies of WDSs are needed to reach these goals in a sustainable way and to maintain high performance of the water infrastructure over time. WDSs around the world are facing major challenges related to water scarcity, aging of infrastructures and climate change impacts. This Special Issue intends to collect contributions about critical aspects of water distribution. The specific focus will be on the sustainable management of water distribution systems, including mitigation of problems related to intermittent supply, equity in water distribution among users and water leakage management. Pressure managing strategies, real-time control techniques and district-metered areas are included in the topics of this Special Issue. Contributions may concern experimental, modeling and review works.

Dr. Alberto Campisano
Guest Editor

Dr. Aurora Gullotta
Guest Editor Assistant

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Keywords

  • water distribution systems
  • intermittent supply
  • equity in water supply
  • water leakages
  • water pressure managements
  • real-time control
  • water distribution systems modeling

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 3540 KiB  
Article
An Optimal Upgrading Framework for Water Distribution Systems Operation
by Abdulaziz H. Alsanad, Abdulrahman A. Bin Mahmoud and Saad I. Aljadhai
Water 2024, 16(12), 1737; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16121737 - 20 Jun 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1070
Abstract
Water distribution systems (WDSs) are essential elements for the prosperity and development of societies around the globe. However, over time, the pipeline network starts to age and deteriorate, which results in an increasing rate of breaks and water loss due to leakages. Many [...] Read more.
Water distribution systems (WDSs) are essential elements for the prosperity and development of societies around the globe. However, over time, the pipeline network starts to age and deteriorate, which results in an increasing rate of breaks and water loss due to leakages. Many countries have started government-funded plans to upgrade and rehabilitate their WDS network components to overcome these challenges. This study proposes an optimization framework that addresses these issues and offers potential benefits. It aims to achieve the optimal upgrading strategies considering network operation (hydraulic) performance and upgrading cost, including investment and non-revenue water costs. The upgrade of the WDS network in the model consists of replacing pipes and controlling the pressure-reducing valve (PRV) settings to reduce leakages. The proposed framework is demonstrated using a small-sized benchmark WDS. The study’s outcomes provide the utilities’ operators and municipalities’ decision-makers with a guiding tool to choose the optimal upgrading strategy for their WDS networks at the lowest cost and optimum operation performance. The methodology involves simulating various leakage scenarios and applying optimization techniques to find the best combination of pipe replacements and PRV settings. This approach ensures a balance between minimizing leakage rates and controlling upgrading costs. The framework achieved a reduction of leakage up to 20% from the original leakage with a 70% probability for the tested benchmark network. The optimization framework can also offer a range of upgrading strategies, with a trade-off between the WDS network leakage reduction and the required cost of the upgrading strategy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Management of Water Distribution Systems)
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13 pages, 4329 KiB  
Article
Hydraulic Connectiveness Metric for the Analysis of Criticality in Water Distribution Networks
by Malvin S. Marlim and Doosun Kang
Water 2024, 16(11), 1498; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16111498 - 24 May 2024
Viewed by 869
Abstract
Capturing the criticality of a water distribution network (WDN) is difficult because of its many constituent factors. In terms of operation, the arrangement of demand nodes and how they connect have a significant influence. This study aims to integrate hydraulic and topologic aspects [...] Read more.
Capturing the criticality of a water distribution network (WDN) is difficult because of its many constituent factors. In terms of operation, the arrangement of demand nodes and how they connect have a significant influence. This study aims to integrate hydraulic and topologic aspects into a single criticality measure by adapting the structural hole influence matrix concept. This method applies the nodal demand to the corresponding pipes to construct a weighted network. The matrix stores each node’s local and global connection information, and the criticality value is then assigned based on the adjacency information. The criticality value can reveal the locations in terms of nodes or pipes that are vital for maintaining a network’s level of service. By analyzing pipe-failure scenarios, the criticality value can be related to the loss of performance. Assessing the nodal criticality change behavior under an increased stress scenario can help uncover the impacted areas. The metric for district metered area (DMA) creation demonstrates its potential as a weighting to be considered. This unified criticality metric enables the evaluation of nodes and pipes in a WDN, thereby enabling resilient and sustainable development planning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Management of Water Distribution Systems)
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12 pages, 1089 KiB  
Article
Factors Associated with Public Water Supply Unreliability
by Fahad Alzahrani and Rady Tawfik
Water 2024, 16(10), 1446; https://doi.org/10.3390/w16101446 - 19 May 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1209
Abstract
Public water supply unreliability is a problem that causes human hardships and remains common in the United States. In this paper, we attempt to examine the factors associated with public water supply unreliability. We measure public water service unreliability by the issuance of [...] Read more.
Public water supply unreliability is a problem that causes human hardships and remains common in the United States. In this paper, we attempt to examine the factors associated with public water supply unreliability. We measure public water service unreliability by the issuance of boil water notices (BWNs). By using a Negative Binomial regression model and data from West Virginia community water systems in 2020, we find that water systems that purchase their water from other water systems, have more educated and experienced operators, and serve high-income areas and a higher percentage of Native residents are expected to issue more BWNs. On the other hand, water systems that are small and serve a higher percentage of rural, educated, employed residents are expected to issue fewer BWNs. The findings emphasize the need to move beyond simplistic assumptions about water system reliability and consider the combined influence of technical, socio-economic, and demographic factors. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Management of Water Distribution Systems)
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