Software and Datasets
Water distribution networks (WDNs) are crucial for human well-being and also the functioning of modern society. Therefore, they belong to critical infrastructures which are specifically highly protected. Instead of providing the graphs in the Euclidean space, an anonymized graph drawing by force-directed placement is used, which aims to make edge lengths uniform while minimizing the edge crossings. However, the hydraulics of the real WDNs are fully preserved by this procedure
Some characteristics of small case study:
- single source system
- design demand of 22.5 L/s
- 241 nodes
- 268 pipes
- Pmin: 30m
Some characteristics of large case study:
- single source system
- design demand of 1,131,78 L/s
- 3,557 nodes
- 4,021 pipes
- Pmin: 30m
Sitzenfrei, R.; Hajibabaei, M.; Hesarkazzazi, S.; Diao, K.; (2023): Dual graph characteristics of water distribution networks - how optimal are design solutions. In: Complex and Intelligent Systems. 9, 147 -160. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40747-022-00797-4
virtRome is a semi-virtual case study for benchmarking and research purposes. The topography and spatial location of the pipes is based on the real data of Rome. The network layout is created with the tool DynaVIBe-Web, which provides a Epanet input file.
Some characteristics of virtRome:
- four sources
- design demand of 6,000 L/s
- 150,630 nodes
- 157,044 pipes
- Pmin: 10m
- current least cost design 57.08 M€ (contact: robert.sitzenfrei@uibk.ac.at)
The pipe design is based on complex network analysis and the new measure demand edge betweenness centrality (EBCQ). Compared to evolutionary optimization, EBCQ design is highly efficient in terms of computational time (upto 105 times faster) and the found solutions are comparable. If you would like to use virtRome, please cite it as
Sitzenfrei, R.; Wang, Q.; Kapelan, Z.; Savić, D.; (2020): Using complex network analysis for optimization of water distribution networks. In: Water Resources Research. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR027929
In the exploratory project „Smart Water Control“, scientific fundamentals for the successful implementation of innovative and intelligent sensor and control networks in the field of urban water management (water supply, urban drainage and controlled discharge of stormwater) are elaborated.
With the smart monitoring of individual subsystems and the gathering of real-time sensor data, an optimal control process is sought to improve the urban water cycle with regard to efficiency optimization and conservation of resources.
Related Projects:
DynaMind - A framework for modeling the dynamics of an urban environment and their infrastructures
DynaMind is an open source scientific workflow engine operating on data with a resolution in space and time. It is optimized for model simulations in the field of urban water management. The workflow engine is comparable with the Model builder of ArcGis or QGIS. However, they still have some downsides at managing data with a time dimension.
The code base of DynaMind was developed over years driven by various scientific projects with the intention to reuse programming code/algorithms,
create a high performance system (regarding model simulation runtime and memory management) and a flexible code base for fast prototyping at the same time.
Code fragments regarding the optimized runtime and memory management issue are realized in C++, whereas the capability for a fast prototyping is realized by embedding a Python interpreter.
Related Projects:
DynaVIBe-Web
DynaVIBe-Web, is a free available and online accessible web frontend application for generating water infrastructure networks for any place on earth.
Input data:
- openstreetmap data (accessed automatically by DynaVIBe)
- Digital elevation map (DEM).
- User defined service area (by drawing a polygon)
- User defined water sources
- Parameters: Total demand, cycle index, ...
Output:
- Set of EPANET2 model files (.inp files).
CityDrain 3
CityDrain3 is an open source toolbox for integrated modelling of urban drainage systems. Within a block library different subsystems are provided to describing an integrated urban drainage system and the fluxes of water and matter.
The software is distributed as free open source software. Users may use the predefined blocks or create new ones fulfilling special purposes of modelling.
If you would like to use CityDrain3, please cite it as
Burger G., Bach P. M., Urich C., Leonhardt G., Kleidorfer M. and Rauch W. (2016). Designing and implementing a multi-core capable integrated urban drainage modelling Toolkit:Lessons from CityDrain3. Advances in Engineering Software 100, 277-89.
Calimero
Calimero is a freely available software tool for auto calibration of simulation models in the field of urban drainage. The innovation of that tool is the flexibility to work with any model which’s input and output files are plain text and which can be started from command line and the possibility to consider a-priori knowledge on system behaviour. The algorithms for evaluating the objective function and the calibration algorithm itself are defined by the user in a scripting environment to provide best possible flexibility.
A stochastic approach for automatic generation of urban drainage systems
Typically, performance evaluation of new developed methodologies is based on one or more case studies. The investigation of multiple real world case studies is tedious and time consuming. Moreover extrapolating conclusions from individual investigations to a general basis is arguable and sometimes even wrong. In this article a stochastic approach is presented to evaluate new developed methodologies on a broader basis. For the approach the Matlab-tool .Case Study Generator. is developed which generates a variety of different virtual urban drainage systems automatically using boundary conditions e.g. length of urban drainage system, slope of catchment surface, etc. as input. The layout of the sewer system is based on an adapted Galton-Watson branching process. The sub catchments are allocated considering a digital terrain model. Sewer system components are designed according to standard values. In total, 10,000 different virtual case studies of urban drainage system are generated and simulated. Consequently, simulation results are evaluated using a performance indicator for surface flooding. Comparison between results of the virtual case studies and two real world case studies indicates the promise of the method. Finally, it is shown that the presented approach is appropriate to evaluate new developed methodologies.
Stochastic Approach for Performance Evaluation Regarding Water Distribution Systems
A traditional procedure for performance evaluation of systems is to test approaches on one or more case studies. However, it is well known that the investigation of real case studies is a tedious task. Moreover, due to the limited amount of case studies available it is not certain that all aspects of a problem can be covered in such procedure. With increasing computer power an alternative methodology has emerged, that is the investigation of a multitude of virtual case studies by means of a stochastic consideration of the overall performance. Within the frame of this approach we develop here a modular design system (MDS) for water distribution systems (WDSs). With the algorithmic application of such a MDS it is possible to create a variety of different WDSs. As an example of stochastic performance evaluation the impact of pipe breakages on WDSs is estimated applying a pressure driven performance indicator. This performance indicator is evaluated stochastically. Likewise the performance evaluation of a variety of WDSs is also performed stochastically. Cumulative distribution function, histogram and other statistical properties of 2,280*1,000 performance results of the different WDSs are calculated to highlight the applicability of the introduced stochastic approach.
Systematic generation of virtual networks for water supply
Building theories from case studies is a common research approach that applies also for the analysis of networks. Although case studies set up the bridge between theory and practice they still are investigations of a) low quantity and b) of specific circumstances. Reason is that data collection and the model building process as basis for a case study research are a tedious task. Thus, the number of available case studies for research of water supply networks is restricted. To tackle this problem the graph theory based Modular Design System (MDS) is applied to generate a multitude of networks with diverging properties. The application of the MDS outlines generating a set of 2,280 virtual Water Supply Systems (WSSs). The different properties (e.g. number of sources) of the WSSs results from the generation process considering varying boundary conditions. Set characteristics are described by scatter plots, density and cumulative distribution functions of the network parameters as the hydraulic and water quality performance of WSSs are strongly influenced by such properties.
Vulnerability of Water Supply Networks (VulNetWS)
A GIS based DST to Recommend Sites of Water Supply Systems for Preventive Measures
In this article the decision support tool VulNetWS is presented. This GIS-based tool serves as aid for managers of water supply systems to arise the level of supply security of potable water. Water supply systems are under risk, any time. Various potential hazards can disturb the functionality of the system. The occurrence of natural hazards may increase in time of climate change. Terrorist attacks can cause tremendous impacts on the system. Therefore the tool identifies vulnerable sites of the water supply system by mimicking, simulating and evaluating a failure of each water supply system components. The identified vulnerability sites are recommended for preventive measures depending on the kind of hazard. As a result a vulnerability map is calculated using hydraulic simulations and performance indicators. To test the suitability of the tool such maps are generated for five water supply systems in an alpine environment. The results show that the evaluated systems include vulnerabilities which should be protected (2% of the components constitute performance indicators lower than 50%) to guaranty high level of supply security.
Vulnerability of Urban Drainage Networks (VulNetUD)
Identifying weak points of urban drainage systems by means of VulNetUD
This article presents the development and application of the software tool VulNetUD. VulNetUD is a tool for GIS-based identification of vulnerable sites of urban drainage systems (UDS) using hydrodynamic simulations undertaken using EPA SWMM. The benefit of the tool is the output of different vulnerability maps rating sewer surcharging, sewer flooding, combined sewer overflow (CSO) efficiency and CSO emissions. For this, seven predefined performance indicators are used to evaluate urban drainage systems under abnormal, critical and future conditions. The application on a case study highlights the capability of the tool to identify weak points of the urban drainage systems. Thereby it is possible to identify urban drainage system components which cause the highest performance decrease across the entire system. The application of the method on a real world case study shows for instance that a reduction of catchment areas which are located upstream of CSOs with relatively less capacity in the downstream sewers achieves the highest increases efficiency of the system. Finally, the application of VulNetUD is seen as a valuable tool for managers and operators of waste water utilities to improve the efficiency of their systems. Additionally vulnerability maps generated by VulNetUD support risk management e.g. decision making in urban development planning or the development of rehabilitation strategies.
WDS Designer - Generator of Water Distribution Systems using GIS-Data
In the field of water distribution system (WDS) analysis, case study research is a well known approach to test strategies or new developed technologies. However, data availability for investigation of real cases is limited due to the time and cost consuming data collection. Also fear of terrorist attacks induces restricted access to sensible data of WDS. However, for research tasks as model-building, identifying of system coherences or software testing it is crucial to gather such data. With the WDS Designer a tool is presented which algorithmically generates WDS using GIS-data for population density, housing density and elevation. It is shown that the generated WDS are comparable with properties of a real world WDS. Therefore, a powerful and user friendly tool is presented to identify system coherences in WDS for research and education tasks. Moreover, the tool provides data of WDS with varying properties (e.g. network layout) to answer research questions on a case independent basis. As an example for a practical application of the WDS Designer the assessment of construction costs of WDS for new development is discussed.
CITY Drain 1 & 2
CITY DRAIN is an open source toolbox for integrated modelling of urban drainage systems realized in Matlab/Simulink. Within a block library different subsystems are provided to describing an integrated urban drainage system and the fluxes of water and matter.
The software is distributed as free open source software. Users may use the predefined blocks or create new ones fulfilling special purposes of modelling.
In case you want to get a notice for future bug fixes or new blocks created, leave you mail address at [stefan.achleitner@uibk.ac.at] with the subject/content "CityDrain User".
