Water Simulation Packages (WSP)

By Wallingford Software, UK

Water distribution authorities around the world have formal obligations to supply water to fight fires, and to check regularly that they meet these obligations. Underprovision of this vital community resource is not acceptable. However, overprovision also could have its problems. Because fire flow is often the dominant factor in sizing a network, particularly in smaller systems, overprovision for fire flow means oversizing the network, leading to costly capital investment. The difficulties of finding the right balance between these two conflicting factors underlines the importance of accurate fire flow analysis.

This paper describes how modeling can now help with such analysis, automating the process and making major savings on what is at present a time-consuming and costly task.

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“With financial help from the Pentagon, Israeli scientists develop a means for identifying any kind of water contamination. The well-equipped Israeli defense establishment may receive a significant addition by the end of the year - an artificial tongue.

Teams of scientists at three of Israel’s universities - Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University - have overcome a hurdle that was considered impossible to conquer and developed an apparatus capable of identifying every kind of water contamination.”

See the full story at haaretz.com.

The following information was taken from the Skat Foundation web page:

The Skat Foundation aims to contribute to the reduction of the gap between rich and poor through knowledge sharing and providing advice to partners in developing countries and countries in transition. It promotes sustainable improvement of the living conditions of the disadvantaged, particularly the poor, women and children.

In early 1998, the Swiss Centre for Development Cooperation in Technology and Management (SKAT) published a first edition of an “Overview of computer programs on drinking water distribution”. A selection of 10 widely used commercial software packages for designing and analysing piped water distribution systems was presented in a uniform and rapidly accessible format, based on information provided by the respective developers and distributors. The document responded successfully to an expressed demand from practitioners in developing countries who regularly addressed inquiries through SKAT, asking about currently available software for drinking water distribution systems design and analysis.

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Skat review of modeling software for piped distribution networks

The ASCE published last month guidelines for designing an online contaminant monitoring system for water systems.

The following is from the ASCE web site:
“Interim Voluntary Guidelines for Designing an Online Contaminant Monitoring System provides information on designing online contaminant monitoring systems, including assessing the need for a monitoring system, locating instruments and sensors, and responding to suspected contamination events. Training and outreach materials for each of the guidelines are currently being developed and will be available in spring 2005. The guidance documents, along with feedback from industry professionals and additional research, will be the basis for the development of voluntary consensus standards, to be published in late 2006.”

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Guidelines for Designing an Online Contaminant Monitoring System

Objective
The aim of the POWADIMA research project is to establish the feasibility of introducing optimal, real-time control of water distribution networks. Since demand is fluctuating continually, it is necessary to adjust the control apparatus frequently if optimal or near-optimal control is to be achieved. The objective function is to meet the forecast demands at minimal operating cost, subject to operational constraints such as statutory minimum pressure, minimum acceptable flow to avoid stagnation etc. This implies minimizing pumping costs which are the largest component of the operating cost (hence the acronym POWADIMA).

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POWADIMA research project

By Avi Ostfeld and Elad Salomons

Abstract:Deliberate contamination is generally viewed as the most serious potential terrorist threat to water systems.Chemical or biological agents could spread throughout a distribution system and result in sickness or death among the people drinking the water.Since September 11,2001 the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency’s water protection task force and regional offices have initiated massive actions to improve the security of the drinking water infrastructure.A methodology is presented for finding the optimal layout of an early warning detection system ~EWDS!.The detection system is comprised of a set of monitoring stations aimed at capturing deliberate external terrorist hazard intrusions through water distribution system nodes—sources,tanks,and consumers.The optimization considers extended period unsteady hydraulics and water quality conditions for a given defensive level of service to the public,defined as a maximum volume of polluted water exposure at a concentration higher than a minimum hazard level.Such a scheme provides an EWDS for a deliberate terrorist external hazard intrusion,as well as for accidental contamination entries under unsteady conditions—a problem that currently has not been solved.The methodology is cast in a genetic algorithm framework for integration with EPANET and is demonstrated through two example applications.

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