Optimizing the Design of Water Distribution Networks Using Mathematical OptimizationCase Studies in Operations Research

Decaying infrastructure in municipalities is becoming a problem of increasing importance as growing populations put increasing stress on all service systems. In tough economic times, renewing and maintaining infrastructure has become increasingly difficult. As an example, many municipal water networks were installed several decades ago and were designed to handle much smaller demand and additionally have decayed due to age. This chapter discusses an efficient approach for the problem of replacing all the pipes using the same network topology, at minimum cost, to achieve current pressure demands at junctions of the network.