A Dynamic Adaptive Approach for Water Distribution Network Design

In the face of a highly uncertain future, there is a need for water utilities to develop structured approaches for the long-term strategic design of water distribution networks (WDNs). A new conceptual framework for developing an integrative approach based on a multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA), embracing an optimization model to size flexible alternatives, is proposed. The flexible solutions are evaluated through MCDA for all the criteria (investment costs, carbon emissions, resilience, and reliability of WDNs) across all the scenarios generated for the sake of robustness and will help to adapt WDNs to changing conditions over a long planning horizon, divided into phases. The alternatives are ranked through two different MCDA methods, Preference Ranking Organization METHod for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS), so that decision makers will have more comprehensive information for analyzing highly ranked design solutions and after the first phase, solutions for the other phases can be reassessed by the same dynamic adaptive framework.