Division of Water Supply Systems into District Metered Areas Using a Multi-agent Based Approach

Technical management of large water supply systems (WSS) is an increasingly complex problem. Water companies managing these systems have witnessed how the mathematical models of their networks lose accuracy and their engineering tools become obsolete. Consequently, they have no clear vision of the balance between production and distribution, that is to say, between supply and demand. As a result, water companies are interested in improving the control and management of their networks. One of the methods attracting great interest is that of division into DMAs (district metered areas). Division into DMAs splits an interconnected and intricate network into smaller, virtually independent sub-networks that can be better managed. However, the complexity of the problem of creating DMAs demands efficient techniques. In this contribution we use a multi-agent based approach that takes advantage of the distributed nature of WSS.

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