Spatial Demand Allocation for Distribution System Design

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Utilities often experience difficulty planning and designing distribution systems to meet spatial water demands. Water system demand characteristics (quantity, quality, timing, and location) drive many distribution system management, operation, and design decisions. Characteristics such as average-annual use, maximum-day use, maximum-hour use, and fire-flow requirements constrain the makeup, size, and timing of distribution system modifications and expansions. Although sophisticated network models are often used to design and analyze distribution system modifications and expansions, these models traditionally treat nodal demand characteristics as a fixed parameter. In many cases, the spatial distribution of water demand is not well defined. The goals of the project were to · assess existing tools and methodologies used for identification, prediction, and spatial allocation of water demands for distribution system planning and design · make use of state-of-the-art technologies, water consumption data, and other regional data to develop improved empirical depictions of the spatial distribution of water demand · develop common tools and methodologies for predicting and allocating demand in water distribution planning and design models · describe methods for quantifying uncertainties associated with water demand predictions that are used for system planning and design. The project produced practical approaches to working with utility consumption data for developing spatial demand allocation in water distribution modeling and system planning. Furthermore, the researchers introduced innovative statistical methods (e.g., robust statistics, continuous time functional form, and fixed effects methodology). The researchers also explained the potential applications of spatial demand allocation to distribution planning.