Integrated performance assessment model for water distribution networks

Abstract

The American infrastructure report card in 2013 rated the US water system infrastructure with grade of ‘D’. The Canadian infrastructure report card in 2012 stated that around 15.4% of Canada’s water infrastructure has a condition of fair to very poor. Thus, there is a critical need to develop efficient inspection, maintenance and rehabilitation plans for water distribution networks. However, such plans require an assessment tool to evaluate the performance and condition of water distribution networks. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to develop an integrated performance assessment model for water distribution networks. Two modules were developed to assess the performance of water pipelines and accessories, respectively. A third module was developed to assess the performance of water segments that includes pipelines and accessories. Moreover, a fourth module was built to assess the performance of each sub-network and the entire network based on the segments’ connection type using a reliability-based approach. To assess the performance of the water distribution network, the critical factors affecting its pipelines and accessories were identified and studied. The fuzzy analytic network process technique was used to obtain the importance weights of the identified factors.