Developing and utilizing data bases for water main rehabilitation

The efficiency of maintaining and rehabilitating water distribution networks could be improved by a computerized database. The standard American Water Works Association approach, relating data to mains segments between nodes and an alternative using a more concise database in which all data were related to the original contracts, were employed. The latter demanded less computing power. Mains condition, failures and leakage, soil characteristics, water quality, water pressure, customer complaints, meter data and costs of operation and rehabilitation were fed into the system. Having developed the comprehensive database, it was searched to provide information on which to build rehabilitation plans. The performance of rehabilitated areas of the networks could also be evaluated.