Development of an Evaluation Method for Urban Water Network Sustainability Through the Innovation of a Point Sustainability Index: A Case Study of Abyek

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Darab Biranvandi 1
Hossein Hassanpour Darvishi 2
Hossein Ebrahimi 2
1 PhD Student of Water Resources, Deptartment of Civil Engineering, Shahr-e-Qods Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Associated Professor, Deptartment of Civil Engineering, Shahr-e-Qods Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/usd.2024.2017016.1165
Abstract
Designing programs for the rehabilitation and development of water distribution networks before any executive action, in order to avoid wasting costs, requires simulating the effect of executive options on the performance of the network. Performance of water distribution networks is evaluated based on the network risk index for current and the future situations of the network. Also, network performance is evaluated in time periods (daily, monthly, quarterly and yearly) to determine the sustainability of or compare homogeneous networks. It is necessary to pay attention to the evaluation of the local and point efficiency of the network and its relationship with the sustainability index. Therefore, current research was designed to carry out the mechanism of obtaining a point index as a new solution to show the effects of changes on consumption points.
In the implementation step, the hydraulic simulation of the real water distribution network in Abek Qazvin was carried out to extract the necessary data to implement the proposed method. Then the point indices of resilience, vulnerability and reliability were extracted from the overall index of the network in three modes of minimum, average and maximum consumption.
The distribution of point sustainability indices showed that more than half of the network nodes are in a relatively stable state; on the other hand, a significant part of the network nodes is in the relative sustainability range, and some of the network nodes are in the unstable range. Also, the results showed that in the maximum consumption mode, the distribution of point sustainability had lower values than other consumption modes, in such a way that the trend of changes in the overall index of the network decreased from 0.66 to 0.41 with the decrease in pressure. In the same situation simultaneously, the average point index of the network decreased from 0.8 to 0.27. Therefore, the comparison of the total and point sustainability indices of the network showed that the amount and distribution of the sustainability index of the network points have decreased more with the increase in consumption (pressure reduction) compared to the total index. As a result, the point sustainability index in the state of maximum consumption compared to the total sustainability index was a better indicator for network consumption nodes. Therefore, it can be recommended that in network rehabilitation and development programs, evaluation and promotion of point sustainability will provide more favorable operational results. For continuing and raising up the accuracy of current research outcomes, authors suggest to analyses both overall and points sustainability indices within three main conditions of the water network correspondence to periods of the 10 meters water pressures as these pressure classification seats the acceptable pressure situation in the network.
 

Keywords

Subjects

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Journal of Urban Sustainable Development
Volume 6, Issue 19
Summer 2025
Pages 51-66