Author(s): Orazio Giustolisi; Gabriele Freni; Giovanni Bruno; Franz Bruno; Luigi Berardi; Gianfredi Mazzolani

Linked Author(s): Gabriele Freni, Luigi Berardi, Orazio Giustolisi

Keywords: Sset Management; Digital Transition; Digital Water; Leakage Management; Water Distribution Networks; Water Performance Indicators; KPIs in Water Losses

Abstract: Water Performance Indicators, WPIs, were originally conceived to measure the effectiveness in managing water distribution networks, WDN, to deliver safe, reliable, and affordable water services to the customers; they are currently used to support ex-ante and ex post evaluation of water providers by national regulation agencies worldwide. On this premises, they are being used by water companies also to drive the allocation of investments among different WDNs or different portions of the same WDN. Nonetheless, not all WPIs are adequate to support asset management activities aimed at leakage reduction and the selection of a wrong indicators might conduct to misleading conclusions and inefficient investments. The novel Asset Management Support Indicator, AMSI, is here presents to provide insight into the most efficient course of actions in WDNs. Differently from other WPIs reported in literature, AMSI is consistent with WDN hydraulics and exploits the opportunities from advanced hydraulic modelling and digital transformation. AMSI is demonstrated and discussed using real WDNs managed by the water utility of the province of Enna in Sicily. It is shown that AMSI is scalable and can effectively support technical decisions about the leakage control strategy, i. e. pipeline replacement and active leakage detection/localization versus pressure control, thus maximizing the efficiency of investments of a water utility.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3850/iahr-hic2483430201-504

Year: 2024