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Design improvement in water distribution systems : a life cycle thinking approach

University of British Columbia

Potable water is mainly delivered to communities through a complex network of underground pipes referred to as a water distribution system (WDS). Globally, an enormous amount of energy is consumed each year in the construction and operation of a WDS. Over the past few decades, the concept of sustainability has been widely recognized in all engineering projects. Previous practices have shown that the design process for WDS is mainly “hydraulic driven,” which is to deliver water with the required quantity, quality, and continuity under the desired pressure. For a sustainable WDS, it is important to incorporate cost, energy efficiency, environmental performance, and social factors in the designing of a WDS. In this research, a new approach has been adopted by incorporating life cycle thinking in the initial design process to improve WDS sustainability. Also, an existing WDS is used as a case study to demonstrate the utility of the proposed approach. Twelve different design scenarios were reproduced and compared to the existing design. The design option with relatively lower emission and cost was finally selected. Eventually, the purpose of this research is to offer practical advice which will allow consideration of environmental criteria in the design process find suitable grounds in the water supply industry.

Text

2019-04-25

Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/69941

Civil Engineering

University of British Columbia

UBCO

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/