What’s Next in Water Distribution Systems Management?

Water distribution systems (WDSs) were studied intensively in the last decades. The research concerning WDS is varied and covers many aspects of the WDS lifecycle such as design, operation, water quality, sensor placement, leak detection, demand forecasting, and more. A common approach in all areas of research on WDSs is to explore within predefined boundaries of the problem and partially represent anything beyond these boundaries. For example, consumers that consume water from the network and use it, a direct outcome of this action is that the sewage collection system gets its input. The two systems are inherently related to each other but analyzed and operated separately. More examples of such boundaries are the connection between WDSs and electricity grids, where electrical prices are usually treated as inputs to WDS problems, but the costs of electricity production and transmission are not considered. Moreover, WDS storage tanks can be used for regulating loads in the electricity grid. Another example is the state (volume, levels, and quality) of water sources such as aquifers and surface waters. These are usually studied from a hydrological perspective, but WDSs and natural water resources are subject to mutual interconnections. These examples (and others) point out that WDSs are not isolated systems; they are integrated with other natural and infrastructure systems. Accordingly, the decision making related to the different aspects of WDSs should consider the full complexity that exists in real systems, which is broader than the WDS itself. This study elaborates on several opportunities to expand the existing boundaries of WDS problems, thus opening new research areas in WDS management.