Water distribution network renewal planning

This paper provides an overview of the authors’ previous work in formulating a comprehensive approach to the important problem of water distribution network renewal planning, with a particular emphasis on the computing aspects involved. As pipes in a water distribution network age in service, they are characterized by increased frequency of breakage and decreased hydraulic capacity. The resulting service failures incur utility costs for the repair or rehabilitation of the pipe systems and consumer costs for degraded system performance. The challenge to the decision maker is to determine the most cost-effective plan in terms of what pipes in the network to rehabilitate, by which rehabilitation alternative and at what time in the planning horizon, subject to the constraints of service requirements (system reliability, service pressure, etc.) A dynamic programming approach, combined with partial and implicit enumeration schemes, was used to search the vast combinatorial solution space that this problem presents. A computer program was written to implement these concepts. A hydraulic network solver is used by the program to assure the network conformance to hydraulic constraints during the search for a solution. The outcome is a strategy that identifies, for each pipe in the network, the optimal rehabilitation/renewal alternative and its optimal time of implementation. The significance of this method is in its ability to identify an optimal rehabilitation strategy while considering the deterioration of both structural integrity and hydraulic capacity of the entire network. The best current heuristic method is limited in practical studies to a network of up to 15-20 pipe links. A more efficient heuristic method is required for implementing these principles in a larger-scale water distribution system and is the subject of current research.