Water Distribution Network Sectorisation Using Structural Graph Partitioning and Multi-objective Optimization

Partitioning a water distribution network (WDN) into smaller sub-networks (called district metered areas, or DMAs) is a strategy to manage its complexity. A number of requirements for WDN partitioning make existing graph partitioning techniques inefficient at finding a good solution. There are also other structural and hydraulic constraints, such as partition size, minimum nodes’ elevation difference in partitions, and water velocity in pipes that make the identification of an efficient partitioning a challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a technique called WDN-Cluster to solve this partitioning problem for gravity-driven water distribution networks. WDN-Cluster applies a combination of structural graph partitioning and multi-objective optimization based on NSGA-II to find a good arrangement of nodes into DMAs.