Trials & Tribulations of Modelling a Small Urban Water Supply
Annual Conference
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This paper will demonstrate some of the ‘trials and tribulations’ that can be experienced when modelling small urban water reticulations. Important aspects of a water supply model build include collection of data pertaining to the network, identification of the reticulation operational regime, collection of data for use in calibrating the model and calibration of the model itself.
The process of obtaining reticulation information from the various sources it can be held in and some examples of a number of issues that have been encountered when building or updating a water supply model will be considered.
It is very important to clearly understand the operational regime when modelling a water supply reticulation. Significant communication and meetings with the water supply operators is required to ensure the model reflects what is actually happening in the network.
A field test is carried out to confirm the operation of the reticulation. There are a number of things to take into consideration when choosing the locations for the temporary data loggers installed for the collection of data. Once the data has been collected it is used to ascertain whether or not the model reflects reality. Any differences must be investigated before changes are made in the model.
In summary, there are many areas that can be a ‘trial and tribulation’ when building or updating a model of a small urban water supply and examples of some of these will be shared and discussed.