Pipeline Networks E-modelling Based on CityComTM Technology: Experience of Industrial Implementation for Large Water-supply Systems

In the article below the author describes best practices of his company's 25-years experience in the field of development and industrial implementation of complex corporate-level software systems for solutions to everyday production and planning tasks in water supply.All software systems described have been developed using the specialized CityCom™ platform that includes instrumentation tools not only for GIS-based inventory and hydro-modeling but also for dispatch management, accident localization control, providing events logs & analysis (flow parameters, damages, works, machinery usage, diagnostics), planning of capital repairs and etc.The basic principle underlying the software systems provided is the main tenet of informatics science: any data has to be identified and stored only once and in one place. So all of the CityCom™ corporate-level projects use a single corporate database that consist of hundreds of tables where all the data is stored in accordance with the above-mentioned principle.The feature of CityCom™ that appears to be most in demand is the ability to perform hydraulic modeling with no limits imposed on the following parameters: network dimension, number of loops, number of sources and pump stations working simultaneously. However, a key feature of CityCom™ hydro-modeling instrumentation is that it can be used not as «standalone» application but as an integral part of a complex system combining all aspects of water-supply enterprise data modeling solution.The economic advantages of its implementation are ensured by:- optimizing of pipeline networks topology and parameters (reconstructions and switching);- optimizing of hydraulic modes according to diurnal fluctuations of water consumption (dispatching of current switches and pump stations control);- reducing the number of accidents as well as defects and damages (10-12% per year during the first 5-6 years, then stabilizing) and as a result, reducing the cost of repairs;- reducing of potable water loss down to 5..6% of water supply volume;- improving ergonomics and staff productivity.All implementations for water supply and sewerage systems are located in Russia. Largest of them in terms of scale are in the cities (population / pipelines network length): Nizhny Novgorod (1.300.000/5.000 km), Novokuznetsk (550.000/1.800 km), Naberezhnye Chelny (530.000/ 1.400 km), Yoshkar-Ola (270.000/1.300 km).Payback of expenses for implementation of the above has made from 2 to 5 years.