Enhanced Water Demand Analysis via Symbolic Approximation within an Epidemiology-Based Forecasting Framework

[EN] Epidemiology-based models have shown to have successful adaptations to deal with challenges coming from various areas of Engineering, such as those related to energy use or asset management. This paper deals with urban water demand, and data analysis is based on an Epidemiology tool-set herein developed. This combination represents a novel framework in urban hydraulics. Specifically, various reduction tools for time series analyses based on a symbolic approximate (SAX) coding technique able to deal with simple versions of data sets are presented. Then, a neural-network-based model that uses SAX-based knowledge-generation from various time series is shown to improve forecasting abilities. This knowledge is produced by identifying water distribution district metered areas of high similarity to a given target area and sharing demand patterns with the latter. The proposal has been tested with databases from a Brazilian water utility, providing key knowledge for improving water management and hydraulic operation of the distribution system. This novel analysis framework shows several benefits in terms of accuracy and performance of neural network models for water demand. Navarrete-López, CF.; Herrera Fernández, AM.; Brentan, BM.; Luvizotto Jr., E.; Izquierdo Sebastián, J. (2019). Enhanced Water Demand Analysis via Symbolic Approximation within an Epidemiology-Based Forecasting Framework. Water. 11(246):1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11020246 Fecarotta, O., Carravetta, A., Morani, M., & Padulano, R. (2018). Optimal Pump Scheduling for Urban Drainage under Variable Flow Conditions. Resources, 7(4), 73. doi:10.3390/resources7040073 Creaco, E., & Pezzinga, G. (2018). Comparison of Algorithms for the Optimal Location of Control Valves for Leakage Reduction in WDNs. Water, 10(4), 466. doi:10.3390/w10040466 Nguyen, K. A., Stewart, R. A., Zhang, H., Sahin, O., & Siriwardene, N. (2018). Re-engineering traditional urban water management practices with smart metering and informatics. Environmental Modelling & Software, 101, 256-267. doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.12.015 Adamowski, J., & Karapataki, C. (2010). Comparison of Multivariate Regression and Artificial Neural Networks for Peak Urban Water-Demand Forecasting: Evaluation of Different ANN Learning Algorithms. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 15(10), 729-743. doi:10.1061/(asce)he.1943-5584.0000245 Caiado, J. (2010). Performance of Combined Double Seasonal Univariate Time Series Models for Forecasting Water Demand.