Technical note: Graph-theory-based heuristics to aid in the implementation of optimized drinking water network sectorization

Abstract

Drinking water distribution networks form an essential part of modern-day critical infrastructure. Sectorizing a network into district metered areas is a key technique for pressure management and water loss reduction. Sectorizing an existing network from scratch is, however, an exceedingly complex design task that designs in a well-studied general mathematical problem. Numerical optimization techniques such as evolutionary algorithms can be used to search for near-optimal solutions to such problems, but doing so within a reasonable time frame remains an ongoing challenge. In this work, we introduce two heuristic tricks that use information of the network structure and information of the operational requirements of the drinking water distribution network to modify the basic evolutionary algorithm used to solve the general problem. These techniques not only reduce the time required to find good solutions but also ensure that these solutions better match the requirements of drinking water practice. Both techniques were demonstrated by applying them in the sectorization of the actual distribution network of a large city.