Water utilities across the United States anticipate a growing
need to rehabilitate and replace aging water mains
because of a convergence of pipe life spans. Shortfalls in
funding for this activity will contribute to an estimated water
infrastructure funding gap of $480 billion over the next 20 years.
The city of San Diego (California) Water Department (SDW) undertook
this pilot study to determine whether significant cost savings
could be achieved in its rehabilitation and replacement (R&R)
program by using genetic algorithm (GA) optimization.
Wilson and colleagues discuss how the use of GA
optimization will save SDW millions of dollars compared with
simulation trial and error. During this study, the GA evaluated
millions of trial solutions to develop low-cost alternatives
that met all of the design and emergency criteria specified
by SDW. The GA identified a near-optimal mix of new pipe
and R&R choices that were not only low cost but also redundant
and reliable in the event of a source outage or a
main break. Includes 11 references, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. 95 - No. 8 |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 2.9 MB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 11 |
| Published : | 08/01/2003 |
