An Integrated Modeling Approach to Optimize the Management of a Water Distribution System: Improving the Sustainability While Dealing with Water Loss, Energy Consumption and Environmental Impacts

The research outlined in this contribution was born with the aim to develop appropriate methodologies and tools to support the optimization of the WDS performance, in terms of water saving and reduction of energy consumptions and consequently environmental impacts. The integration of advanced WDS hydraulic modelling with a material and energy flow analysis is proposed herein, where the output of the hydraulic simulations permits to get more accurate input for a metabolic analysis of the system. Next phases of this research will test the integrated model under different scenarios, aimed at quantifying the environmental impact of different WDS management solutions by means of selected indicators.