Performance Management of Demand and Pressure Driven Analysis in a Monitored Water Distribution Network

A smart management of water distribution networks requires the infrastructure to be operated with high efficiency. For many years the hydraulic modelling of water distribution networks has been conditioned by the scarce availability of quality data but the technological advances contributed to overcome this drawback. The present work describes the research activity carried out about water distribution network modelling, focusing on model construction and calibration. For this purpose, WaterNetGen, an extension of the Epanet hydraulic simulation software, has been used. EPANET simulation model assumes that the required water demand is always fully satisfied regardless the pressure (Demand Driven Analysis - DDA), while WaterNetGen has a new solver assuming that the required water demand is only fully satisfied if the pressure conditions are adequate (Pressure Driven Analysis - PDA). A comparison between the software outputs is the starting point for a new method of allocating and distributing water demand and water losses along the network, leading to model results closer to the measurements obtained in the real network. The case study is the water distribution network of the municipality of Nicotera, in Southern Italy.