REWET: A Tool to Model System Functioning and Restoration of Damaged Water Supply Systems

Abstract

The process of restoring water supply after service is interrupted is critical for determining the durations and spatial distribution of outages and thus the impacts that households, businesses, and others ultimately experience. Nevertheless, the restoration period is difficult to predict because it involves complex, dynamic interactions among the system hydraulics, operator restoration actions, and consumer adaptations to service interruptions. In this paper, we introduce a new computer model called Restoration of Water after an Event Tool (REWET) that (1) allows detailed representations of both the hydraulic operations of the system and the restoration process, (2) is flexible enough to apply to any system or disruptive event, enable varying levels of complexity, and allow deterministic or probabilistic analysis, and (3) is available as free, easy-to-use, open-source code. It uses pressure-demand driven hydraulic analysis and allows detailed discrete event simulation representation of the restoration process. We present case study applications of REWET for the Los Angeles water system and for a small, simple network to illustrate the tool’s functionality, flexibility, and key features.