Automated Creation of District Metered Area Boundaries in Water Distribution Systems

Date

2012-04-03

Advisors

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

ASCE

Type

Article

Peer reviewed

Yes

Abstract

Accounting for water in a distribution system can be improved by dividing systems into smaller, metered zones. This paper proposes an approach that could create boundaries for district metered areas (DMA) automatically on the basis of the community structure of water distribution systems. Community structure—the gathering of vertices into communities such that there is a higher density of edges within communities than between them—is a common property of many complex systems. For verification, the method was tested on a real-world distribution system, and the result was compared with a manually designed DMA layout. Although further improvements are necessary, because the achieved community structure is in excellent agreement with the zoning plan in reality, this approach is a new addition to the number of automated methods aimed at complementing and eventually substituting the empirical trial-and-error approach.

Description

-A patent has been authorized for the method developed. -Dr Tom Walski, a top expert in the water industry, has given positive feedback. -Two project proposals have been submitted in collaboration with leading companies. -Dr. Diao has been invited by Severn Trent Water, Shenzhen Water Utility, and Tsinghua Holdings Human Settlements Environment Institute to present the method and discuss possible collaborations.

Keywords

Water distribution system, District metered area, Community structure, Decomposition theorems, Zoning

Citation

Diao, K., Zhou, Y. and Rauch, W. (2012) Automated Creation of District Metered Area Boundaries in Water Distribution Systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 139 (2), pp. 184-190

Rights

Research Institute