Water Distribution System Operation

OPERATIONAL GUIDANCE

This guidance page has been developed to answer the following types of operational questions

What type of water quantity/water quality sensors would be appropriate for my system?
Where should I place such sensors?
What type of hardware interface technology would be most appropriate to use for my system?

-Remote Telemetry Units?

-Remote Terminal Units?

-Programmable Logic Controllers?

-Distributed Control?

-Hierarchical Control?

What is the best type of communication network to use?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the different types of system procurement?

How can I develop a graphical representation of my water distribution system? What data are required?
Which valves do I need to close to isolate a pipe break? Which part of the system will be isolated? How can I develop a hydraulic analysis model of my water distribution system? What data are required?
What is model calibration and what does it involved? Why is it important to calibrate my model?
How can the process of model calibration be used to identify:

-Pipe Leaks

-Partially or completely closed valves

How can I use a hydraulic model of my system to answer the following questions?
Can I provide adequate fire protection to a particular location in my system?
Can I add a new development to my system without negatively affecting pressures and fire protection elsewhere?
How old is the water in my system? Can I decrease the water age by changing:

-Valve settings

-Pump operations

-Tank operations

-Normal conditions?

-Emergency conditions?

-Close a particular valve?

-Turn off/on a particular pump?

-Close a particular tank?

How can data analytics be used to improve my operations?
What is required to develop and implement a real-time analytics system?
How important is model calibration to the reliability of the analytics results?
What would be required to implement a hydraulic network model in a real time environment?
Just how realistic is this?