Potential District Metered Area Identification in Water Distribution Networks Using Hydraulic Criteria and the Box Covering Algorithm

Abstract

The box covering algorithm, used to calculate the fractal dimension in water distribution networks (WDNs), was proposed as an alternative to identify possible district metered areas (DMAs) in WDNs. By using hydraulic criteria (SumQ and HGL*SumQ) in the method’s node weight calculations, tests on Cazucá, Exnet, and Santa Marta networks were carried out in order to establish possible divisions into DMAs. The quality of these divisions was measured using the modularity index. These divisions were then compared to those obtained with the community detection algorithm which guarantees the maximum modularity possible starting from every node as a single independent DMA. Divisions with relatively high modularity were obtained using the box covering algorithm, however, their modularity was never as high as the ones obtained with community detection. Therefore, the methodology proposed could be a viable alternative to identify potential divisions into DMAs in large and complex WDNs.