CCWI2017: F83 'Operational interventions in WDS to improve water quality: a comparison of multi-objective optimization formulations'

Managing water quality in drinking water distribution systems is very important to guarantee consumers’ health. Disinfection is used to reduce the risk of pathogenic contamination or microbial species proliferation. Chlorine is a disinfection substance that is traditionally used due to its effectiveness and low cost. However, the use of chlorine has related disinfection by-products, some of which can have carcinogenic effects on human health (e.g., trihalomethanes, THMs). In this context, the objective of this paper is to compare different multi-objective optimization problem formulations to improve the operational interventions of WDSs, in order to reduce the formation of THMs in the network. The analysis of two case studies shows that operating valves is more convenient than operating hydrants and pumps in most of the proposed formulations.