Exploring Entropy and Resilience as Surrogate Indices of Water Network Robustness in PDA Approach

Abstract

Entropy and resilience metrics are proposed as indices to measure the robustness of water distribution networks (WDN) regarding pipe failures and permanent district metering areas (DMAs). Whereas pipe failures represent a temporary disruption of some pipes of WDN (i.e., pipe restoration or replacement), the creation of DMAs involves a permanent alteration closing multiple pipes simultaneously. Although entropy and resilience provide different information about network behavior, they are often used for the same purpose: cost-based multi-objective optimal network design techniques. However, the two metrics were compared with other commonly used hydraulic performance indicators to determine which of them could be better used as surrogate indices for water network robustness. For this purpose, the effects on entropy and resilience due to two different scenarios (pipe failures and permanent DMAs) were evaluated for a medium-sized water distribution network in southern Italy. The hydraulic simulations and water network partitioning were performed with a pressure-driven approach using SWANP 4.0 software.

Keywords

• entropy
• resilience
• robustness
• water supply networks
• pressure-driven analysis