Performance Evaluation of Water Distribution System Using EPANET and ArcGIS 10

Water supply systems in developing countries commonly exhibit problems of inadequate levels of water pressure for hours or days. The problem of integrity of network is further exemplified by deteriorated condition of network that leads to high leakage rates. In the present study, the performance of water distribution system (WDS) in a pilot study area of Nagpur city (India) is evaluated using EPANET software. ArcGIS10 is used to generate the maps of water supply network, node network, and elevation map. Remote sensing image is used to generate the population data. The HydroGen extension to ArcView which is a series of Avenue scripts is used to create hydraulic model data input files for EPANET. To estimate the demand at each node, GIS analysis is performed by generating thiessen polygons. Model simulation results obtained using EPANET indicate that the overall leakage in the system is 4.5lps considering continuous water supply. The results of simulation for variation in flow, velocity, pressure, head and leakage are mapped in ArcGIS. The visualization of results using ArcMap facilitates identification of critical areas with respect to leakage and pressure drop at various nodes.