Modelling water system supplies. The case of Madeira island

Abstract

Insufficiency of water available for consumption constitutes a central role in the social debate due to the natural importance of this resource and the predictions of the exponential demographic increase, putting more pressure on the cycle of this finite resource essential for natural equilibrium. Therefore, the infrastructure responsible for its distribution must be conceived, maintained and exploited more efficiently. This study deals with the modeling and digital calibration of this type of infrastructures, resorting to a specialty software and applying it to a practical case: the municipality of Câmara de Lobos, on the island of Madeira (Portugal). Through the study and analysis of the model it is possible to verify the high losses in the distribution system and its causes, which are the high pressures and speeds to which the network components are subject due to the particular orography of the island.