Seismic performance assessment of water delivery systems using GIS technology

In the event of an earthquake, a water delivery system may sustain pipe breaks, leakage from connections, collapse of elevated storage tanks, and malfunction of pumping stations. This possible damage may result in a considerable reduction of water flow and water pressure in the water delivery system, and may subsequently lead to a significant shortage of water for fire-fighting and daily water supply. Thus, it is important to assess the seismic performance of a water delivery system.; The assessment of seismic performance of a water delivery system is difficult because one must collect and analyze a large amount of location-related data and interpret the location-related analysis results. These require a powerful data management tool to manipulate and analyze the data. Among many software packages, a geographic information system (GIS) is favored because of its graphic display and spatial analysis capabilities. Therefore, a GIS software package is a very useful tool for conducting the seismic risk assessment of a water delivery system.; The overall objective of this study is to develop a method for assessing the seismic performance of a water delivery system using GIS technology. The method and its GIS procedure are divided into four major parts. The first part includes an implementation of database for a water delivery network and a flow analysis of an intact (undamaged) network. The second part is an estimation of seismic hazards including an investigation of site conditions and estimations of ground shaking intensity, liquefaction potential, and liquefaction-induced permanent ground deformation (PGD) caused by a scenario earthquake. The third part includes an assessment of seismic vulnerabilities of the components of the water delivery system, a determination of seismic hazard information for the components using a GIS overlay function, and a simulation of the damage states of the water delivery network. The fourth part includes flow analyses of the simulated seismically damaged networks and an interpretation of the analysis results. To demonstrate the method, the seismic performance of the Memphis water delivery system is evaluated using the method developed in this study.