Novel Surrogate Measures for Improving Water Distribution Systems' Resilience via Pipe Diameter Uniformity Enhancement

Abstract

Many resilience surrogate measures have been established to evaluate the performance of water distribution systems (WDSs) over the past three decades. However, most of those measures have neglected the nexus between network layout performance and the essential features of system resilience. In this paper, we proposed two novel surrogate measures by introducing node degree and pipe diameter uniformity within the extended nodal neighborhood in a rational, mathematical structure. Then, a comparison framework of surrogate measures was developed, which included a multi-pipe failure scenario generator and a dual-perspective evaluation method. New surrogate measures were benchmarked with well-known counterparts on four networks with different numbers of sources and loop degrees. Results revealed that new surrogate measures outperformed existing ones clearly with a marginal computational budget increase. Solutions derived from the proposed surrogate measures strengthened system resilience by increasing diameter uniformities from sources to critical nodes. Additionally, new surrogate measures showed fewer performance fluctuations. This study provides insights into how to maintain more resilient WDSs.