Sustainability Assessment of Urban Water Distribution Systems

Aydin, Nazli Yonca; Mays, Larry W.; Schmitt, Theo G.

doi:10.1007/s11269-014-0757-1

Cited by 44 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…There is clearly a need for a paradigm shift in the water companies, considering social and environmental aspects in the decision making process, not just economic issues [22,23]. In the framework of evaluating the sustainability of water companies, most of the literature focuses on evaluating the sustainability of physical and engineering aspects [24][25][26], from an environmental perspective [27] or economic sustainability [28,29]. However, there is a lack interest on assessing the sustainability of water companies themselves.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Two-Phase Method to Assess the Sustainability of Water Companies

2019

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Composite indicators are becoming more relevant for evaluating the performance of water companies from a holistic perspective. Some of them are related with economic aspects, and others focus on social and environmental features. Consequently, a multidimensional evaluation is necessary for handling the great amount of information provided by multiple single indicators of a different nature. This paper presents a two-phase approach to evaluate the sustainability of water companies. First, a partial composite indicator for each dimension (social, environmental, economic) is obtained using multi-criteria decision making (MCDM). Then, a global indicator is obtained, in terms of the values reached in the previous stage for every partial indicator, by means an optimization problem rooted in data envelopment analysis (DEA). Our proposal offers the possibility of analyzing the performance of each water company under each dimension that characterizes the concept of sustainability, as well as a joint assessment including all the dimensions, facilitating the decision-making process. We apply it to evaluate the sustainability of 163 Portuguese water companies. The results show the strengths and weaknesses of each unit and serve as a guideline to decision-makers on the aspects for improving the performance of water utilities.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Two-Phase Method to Assess the Sustainability of Water Companies

2019

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“…Depending on their calculation process, simulation methods adopt either discrete [82,83,[124][125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138] or continuous [79,90,96,103,129] metrics. Both types of methods capture the evolving water demand and water quality in the system, but differ in when the information is relayed (at time points or during time periods).…”

Section: Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of the Quantitative Resilience Methods in Water Distribution Networks

Shuang

Liu

Porse

2019

Water

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Water distribution networks (WDNs) are critical contributors to the social welfare, economic growth, and public health in cities. Under the uncertainties that are introduced owing to climate change, urban development, aging components, and interdependent infrastructure, the WDN performance must be evaluated using continuously innovative methods and data acquisition. Quantitative resilience assessments provide useful information for WDN operators and planners, enabling support systems that can withstand disasters, recover quickly from outages, and adapt to uncertain environments. This study reviews contemporary approaches for quantifying the resilience of WDNs. 1508 journal articles published from 1950 to 2018 are identified under systematic review guidelines. 137 references that focus on the quantitative resilience methods of WDN are classified as surrogate measures, simulation methods, network theory approaches, and fault detection and isolation approaches. This study identifies the resilience capability of the WDNs and describes the related terms of absorptive, restorative, and adaptive capabilities. It also discusses the metrics, research progresses, and limitations associated with each method. Finally, this study indicates the challenges associated with the quantification of WDNs that should be overcome for achieving improved resilience assessments in the future. earthquake in 1976 [3] stopped the water supply for more than one week, whereas the Northridge earthquake in 1994 [4] destroyed 74 water main pipes, resulting in approximately 1200 leaks and stoppage of water supply for several weeks. The Kobe earthquake in 1995 [5] damaged more than 4000 incidents of damage to water pipes and cut off 1.2 million end users. Only one-third of the WDN was repaired after one week, and the complete period required for repair was two and a half months. The Wenchuan Earthquake in 2008 [6] affected 181 cities in the Sichuan Province and damaged 47,642.5 km of water pipes. Some cities (such as Dujiangyan and Mianzhu) remained deprived of their normal water supply for a year after the occurrence of this earthquake.The emerging uncertainties have introduced new risks with respect to WDN operation and planning. The impacts of climate change, which are already being felt in the water systems in various communities, will become increasingly severe and intense in the future [7,8]. The WDN planners must re-evaluate the balance between water supply and demand under climate-change events such as increase in sea level, earthquakes, storms, and heatwaves [9]. Meanwhile, the WDNs in several industrialized counties and existing systems exhibit endogenous problems such as aging components, increasing their vulnerability to extreme events. Furthermore, the rapid development of cities has led to the high concentration of population in cities as well as the emergence of cities as financial hubs. The cascading failures caused by the closely associated interactive infrastructures can exacerbate the impact and destructiveness of disasters [10,...

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“…Shi et al (2013) have carried out a study in which they used the global clustering method for the positional change of pipe failures in drinking water networks. Aydın et al (2014) presented a study for determining sustainability indices based upon performance criteria including reliability, resiliency, and vulnerability for pressure and water age in water distribution systems.…”

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confidence: 99%

Estimation of Failure Rate in Water Distribution Network Using Fuzzy Clustering and LS-SVM Methods

Aydoğdu

Fırat

2014

Water Resour Manage

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In this study, a novel approach combining fuzzy clustering and Least Squares Support Vector machine (LS-SVM) methods is developed for estimation of failure rate in water distribution networks and for determination of the relationship between failure rateeffective factors. For this aim, failure data observed Malatya water distribution network during 2006-2012 was selected as study area. In first phase, estimation model was developed and tested for the complete data set in estimating the failure rate by LS-SVM method. Then, in order to develop a more sensitive estimation model and to improve the performance of LS-SVM, 9 sub-regions were defined with similar characteristics by using fuzzy clustering method. Then failure rate estimation was carried out for each of the sub-regions using by LS-SVM method. Feed Forward Neural Network (FFNN) and Generalized Regression Neural Network (GRNN) methods were also used for estimation of failure rate and the results were compared with those of LS-SVM. The criteria such as Correlation Coefficient (R), Efficieny (E) and Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) were used to evaluate the performance of models. The results showed that LS-SVM model gives better results in comparison with the FFNN and GRNN models. It was also determined that LSSVM model results for the sub-regions defined by clustering analysis are better and that the clustering analysis increases the estimation model performance in addition to the fact that the estimation results have become better. In conclusion, it can be possible to develop a more sensitive estimation models using fuzzy clustering and LSSVM methods.

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Sustainability Assessment of Urban Water Distribution Systems

Cited by 44 publications

References 24 publications

A Two-Phase Method to Assess the Sustainability of Water Companies

A Two-Phase Method to Assess the Sustainability of Water Companies

Review of the Quantitative Resilience Methods in Water Distribution Networks

Estimation of Failure Rate in Water Distribution Network Using Fuzzy Clustering and LS-SVM Methods

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