10.25909/5bd67cedde7b2
Rami Zahr
Rami
Zahr
Peter Koufidakis
Peter
Koufidakis
Giancarlo Girolamo
Giancarlo
Girolamo
Daniel Bendo
Daniel
Bendo
F18W41_Poster-Ver0_EMBEDDED.pdf
The University of Adelaide
2018
Smart Flow Meters, Tertiary Education Sector, Water Demand Estimation
Water Resources Engineering
2018-10-29 03:22:20
Poster
https://adelaide.figshare.com/articles/poster/F18W41_Poster-Ver0_EMBEDDED_pdf/7264172
<p>Currently, the design of water distribution systems is
reliant on approximations of typical demand behaviours for different types of
land use. This general approach appears to fail to capture unique behaviours
and water use profiles of individual users. As a result, infrastructure is
often over-designed and underutilised resulting in inefficient systems. Smart
flow meters present an opportunity to increase the efficiency of current and
future water distribution systems by better understanding how and when water is
consumed. Data from 12 smart flow meters at mains inlet points of the
University of Adelaide has been used in a case study to demonstrate the
potential application of smart water meters to improve water demands estimation
and assist in decision making. A method has been developed to allocate demands
to buildings across the system using the measured inlet flows and the floor
space of the buildings. These estimates were compared to those predicted by
typical water supply codes for the current system. For an isolated network of
the current system, water demands calculated using the smart water meters were
on average, 105% less than those predicted using traditional code techniques.
In addition, a selection of water demand strategies were explored as a means
for improving operational efficiency and tested for their feasibility. Further
monitoring on a finer scale such as the sub-metering of key buildings may allow
for improved estimations of water demand. This could be used to target water
management strategies with more precision. </p>