Optimal Design of District Metered Areas in Water Distribution Networks

The paper presents a multi-objective approach for the automatic partitioning of a water distribution network into District Metering Areas (DMAs). In the proposed methodology, both technical and economic issues are considered, including reduction of water leakages due to pressure management and energy production achievable through the use of turbines. The optimization approach is based on a clear explanation of the objective functions, whose structures are defined with the aim of providing full control to the decision-maker. Concepts from graph theory and cluster analysis methods are combined in a three-step algorithm, which can be easily implemented for software use.