SCADA configuration implication: Application of the unified hydraulic solver in water quality modeling of water distribution systems

A new approach has been proposed that enables water utilities to incorporate real time Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) data directly using the Unified Hydraulic Solver (UHS). The proposed approach systemically incorporates the real time SCADA data. The resulting hydraulic and water quality estimates are totally consistent with the real time data. In contrast, the conventionally water quality modeling approach (e.g., EPANET) employs a trial and error "overlay method" to incorporate the SCADA data. It is therefore hypothesized that the proposed approach can offer better water quality estimates than the conventional water quality modeling approach. This hypothesis is verified by comparing the results obtained from the conventional and proposed water quality modeling approaches, respectively. The accuracy of the outputs obtained using the proposed approach is further ascertained based on the comparison with the actual water quality state.; The proposed approach is applied to two example networks under different SCADA configurations. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...