Pipeline rehabilitation combined strategy for urban water systems

Abstract

This paper presents a novel decision support framework for water utilities to automatically create yearly pipeline rehabilitation plans while considering multiple parameters, including pipeline physical properties and other factors like transportation and urban space. The average age of urban water pipelines is growing, and the annual rehabilitation volumes are often lower than needed to improve or even preserve the level of service quality. The existing rehabilitation strategies range from simple pipe-age-based approaches to complex multiparameter strategies. The needed input of specific and detailed data, which are usually not available for water utilities, impedes a straightforward implementation of the latter strategies. Therefore, this study presents a two-step pipe rehabilitation strategy that enables the utility to automatically prioritise the pipes and related street areas/sections based on condition ranking. The strategy was validated on an operational water network in Tallinn, Estonia.