Print Email Facebook Twitter Identifying critical elements in drinking water distribution networks using graph theory Title Identifying critical elements in drinking water distribution networks using graph theory Author Meijer, D.H. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Deltares) Post, Johan (Partners4UrbanWater) van der Hoek, J.P. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Waternet) Korving, Hans (Deltares) Langeveld, J.G. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Partners4UrbanWater) Clemens, F.H.L.R. (TU Delft Sanitary Engineering; Deltares) Date 2021 Abstract Drinking water distribution networks (WDNs) are a crucial infrastructure for life in cities. Deterioration of this ageing, and partly hidden from view, infrastructure can result in losses due to leakage and an increased contamination risk. To counteract this, maintenance strategies are required to maintain the service level. Information on the most critical elements of a WDN, with respect to the functioning of the system as a whole, is essential for prioritising maintenance or rehabilitation activities. In this study a Graph theory based method is developed and applied for efficiently identifying the most critical elements. The main advantage of this method is that it avoids the need to perform elaborate hydrodynamic model calculations. Instead, the structure of the network is the main starting point. The results show that the structure of the network is more decisive than the hydraulics with respect to the criticality of the system’s performance as a whole. Results depict that the suggested approach is applicable not only to the main (primary) network, but also to the capillaries which are normally beyond the scope of the traditional methods applied so-far because of the complexity of the networks and the required calculation time. Subject asset managementcritical elementsdeteriorationdrinking water distribution networksGraph theoryleakagesmaintenance To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:9eead00d-cdff-4678-96e9-9a86446c8bba DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2020.1751664 ISSN 1744-8980 Source Structure & Infrastructure Engineering, 17 (3), 347-360 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2021 D.H. Meijer, Johan Post, J.P. van der Hoek, Hans Korving, J.G. Langeveld, F.H.L.R. Clemens Files PDF 2021_DrinkingWaterDistrib ... y_002_.pdf 3.13 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:9eead00d-cdff-4678-96e9-9a86446c8bba/datastream/OBJ/view