OPTIMIZING WATER SYSTEM IMPROVEMENT FOR A GROWING COMMUNITY

To meet the water supply requirement in a growing community, system improvement alternatives needs to be identified to satisfy the increasing demand. This paper shows that the intelligent optimization modeling tool can assist practical engineers and decision-maker to optimize system expansions and prioritize the budget allocation of capital improvement program (CIP) for a real world water system. The water distribution system undertaken for study represents a community where the water consumption is projected to grow 30% in 15 years. Increasing consumption requires that the water system be improved to move water from sources into the growing areas. The criteria for enhancing the system capacity include satisfying the pressure requirement, the maximum allowable flow velocity and sufficient tank storage. The improvement task is to identify the feasible pipe routes and pipe sizes of the new pipes. Due to the complex interconnectivity and the large combinations of possible pipe routes/sizes, it proved technically difficult for experienced engineers to identify a feasible design solution. GA-based optimization design tool has been applied to forge the cost-effective system improvement solutions. The study shows that optimization modeling is a powerful approach for supporting and enhancing a sound decision-making process in water industry.