Impact of the Condition of Drinking Water Supply Networks on the Quality of Water Intended for Consumption: The Case of the Network in the Commune of Daloa (Central West of Côte d’Ivoire)

The potability of drinking water depends not only on the source and the treatment system, but also on the quality of the waterworks. In fact, the quality of drinking water is considerably degraded by the dilapidated state and lack of maintenance of drinking water networks. In Côte d’Ivoire, the majority of drinking water networks in the various towns are ageing. In Daloa, despite the efforts made by the company in charge of water treatment and distribution to make the water drinkable, the water at consumers’ taps is often colored, has an unpleasant aftertaste and settles after collection. As a result, people are concerned about the potability of tap water, and some are turning to alternative sources of drinking water of unknown quality. In order to determine the factors responsible for the deterioration in water color and taste, as well as the sectors of the network most affected, a diagnosis of the network’s equipment was carried out. Water samples taken from the network were analyzed for color and turbidity. The diagnosis revealed that most of the equipment (suction pads, valves, drains and fire hydrants) is outdated and irregularly maintained. Analyses show that the water is more colored in cast-iron and PVC pipes than in asbestos cement pipes. Coloration values in the network range from 0 to 27 UVC for asbestos cement pipes, from 15 to 56 UCV for ductile iron pipes, and from 11 to 102 UCV for PVC pipes. On the over hand, turbidity values vary from 8.02 to 3.32 NTU for ductile cast iron pipes, 8.51 to 16.98 NTU for asbestos cement pipes and 0.9 to 6.98 NTU for PVC pipes. Old cast-iron pipes release ferric ions on contact with water, degrading their color. Old cast-iron pipes release ferric ions into the water, degrading its color. The high color values observed in the vicinity of drains are thought to be due to irregular maintenance of the network. In fact, after network maintenance, a reduction rate ranging from 2% to 73% is observed for turbidity, while for color, the rate varies from 5% to 72%. In short, the network’s obsolescence and irregular maintenance contribute significantly to the deterioration of water quality.

Water Supply Networks as Cyber-physical Systems and Controllability Analysis

Cyber-physical systems(CPS) is a system of systems which consists of many subsystems that can stand alone in an individual manner and can be taken as a typical complex network.CPS can be applied in the critical infrastructures such as water supply networks,energy supply systems,and so on.In this paper,we analyze the structure of modern city water supply networks from the view of CPS theory,we use complex network theory to build an undirected and unweighted complex network model for the water supply networks to investigate the structural properties,and present the structure of the water supply networks and detect communities by a spectral analysis of the Laplacian matrix.Then,we analyze the structure and controllability of water supply networks by the structural controllability method.The results show the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed complex network model.

Serviceability evaluation of water supply networks under seismic loads utilizing their operational physical mechanism

The serviceability of water supply networks(WSNs)under seismic loads has significant importance for estimating the probable losses and the impact of diminished functionality on affected communities.The innovation presented in this paper is suggesting a new strategy to evaluate the seismic serviceability of WSNs,utilizing their operational physical mechanism.On one hand,this method can obtain the seismic serviceability of each node as well as entire WSNs.On the other hand,this method can dynamically reflect the propagation of randomness from ground motions to WSNs.First,a finite element model is established to capture the seismic response of buried pipe networks,and a leakage model is suggested to obtain the leakage area of WSNs.Second,the transient flow analysis of WSNs with or without leakage is derived to obtain dynamic water flow and pressure.Third,the seismic serviceability of WSNs is analyzed based on the probability density evolution method(PDEM).Finally,the seismic serviceability of a real WSN in Mianzhu city is assessed to illustrate the method.The case study shows that randomness from the ground motions can obviously affect the leakage state and the probability density of the nodal head during earthquakes.

Functionality analysis of an urban water supply network after strong earthquakes

An urban water supply network(WSN)is a crucial lifeline system that helps to maintain the normal functioning of modern society.However,the hydraulic analysis of a significantly damaged WSN that suffers from pipe breaks or leaks remains challenging.In this paper,a probability-based framework is proposed to assess the functionality of WSNs in the aftermath of powerful earthquakes.The serviceability of the WSN is quantified by using a comprehensive index that considers nodal water flow and nodal pressure.This index includes a coefficient that reflects the relative importance of these two parameters.The demand reduction(DR)method,which reduces the water flow of nodes while preventing the negative pressure of nodes,is proposed.The difference between the negative pressure elimination(NPE)method and the DR method is discussed by using the example of a WSN in a medium-sized city in China.The functionality values of the WSN are 0.76 and 0.99 when nodal pressure and nodal demands are used respectively as the index of system serviceability at an intensity level that would pertain to an earthquake considered to occur at a maximum level.When the intensity of ground motion is as high as 0.4 g,the DR method requires fewer samples than the NPE method to obtain accurate results.The NPE method eliminates most of the pipes,which may be unrealistic.

Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP)to Optimize the Service in a Water Supply Network

Decision making in drinking water supply networks is increasingly complex due to the large number of variables involved.In order to make better decisions it is necessary to use adequate and robust methodologies.This paper presents the application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process(AHP)related to the operation of the drinking water supply network of the city of Chihuahua,Mexico,where two possible alternatives are delineated with the objective to optimize the service.The application of AHP was carried out in 24 sectors that have substantial differences in their efficiency but with instrumentation and measurement in all the variables contemplated by the operating agency,with a population of 221,722 inhabitants which represent a 30%of the total population of the city,the results indicate that the best alternative is the one with less criteria to be controlled and fewer repercussions on the cost of operation and investment in the rehabilitation and replacement of the network.

Seismic vulnerability assessment of water supply network in Tianjin, China

The water supply network （WSN） system is a critical element of civil infrastructure systems. Its complexity of operation and high number of components mean that all parts of the system cannot be simply assessed. Earthquakes are the most serious natural hazard to a WSN, and seismic risk assessment is essential to identify its vulnerability to different stages of damage and ensure the system safety. In this paper, using a WSN located in the airport area of Tianjin in northern China as a case study, a quantitative vulnerability assessment method was used to assess the damage that the water supply pipelines would suffer in an earthquake, and the finite element software ABAQUS and fuzzy mathematic theory were adopted to construct the assessment method. ABAQUS was applied to simulate the seismic damage to pipe segments and components of the WSN. Membership functions based on fuzzy theory were established to calculate the membership of the components in the system. However, to consider the vulnerability of the whole system, fuzzy cluster analysis was used to distinguish the importance of pipe segments and components. Finally, the vulnerability was quantified by these functions. The proposed methodology aims to assess the performance of WSNs based on pipe vulnerabilities that are simulated and calculated by the model and the mathematical method based on data of damage. In this study, a whole seismic vulnerability assessment method for a WSN was built, and these analyses are expected to provide necessary information for a mitigation plan in an earthquake disaster.

Predictive Zone Control of Pressure Management for Water Supply Network Systems

In this paper we address the problem of pressure management in water supply system （WSS） network. The model-based predictive control （MPC） strategies have some important features to deal with WSS. By hydraulic analysis of WSS, the predictive model is derived from the dynamic model and static model of WSS. Through WSS, the consumers＇ demands are required to be met at all times according to some operational constraints that must be satisfied. The constraints of flow through actuators, the water level of reservoirs and the consumer areas＇ pressure demand are determined by a specific system. In this work, we develop a constrained MPC controller that considers the zone control of the pressure outputs and incorporates steady state economic targets in the control cost function. The designed management strategies are applied to a case study and simulation results, covering different aspects, are provided. The output nodal pressure can be controlled in the desired zone by optimal scheduling the actuators of the WSS. If the variation range of reservoir＇s water level is broader, the rate of flow through the actuators is gentle, and vice versa.