Postearthquake Recovery of a Water Distribution System: Discrete Event Simulation Using Colored Petri Nets

Abstract

Planning and preparedness is essential for any resilient infrastructure system. Modeling and simulation give engineers and planners a better understanding of the system and help them make better decisions. The objective of this study is to demonstrate an improved model for the disaster restoration process by using a discrete event simulation approach. The study also aims to help improve the postearthquake restoration process by simulating restoration curves. In this paper, colored Petri nets are used to model the system and to simulate its behavior. The resource allocation after a rare event such as an earthquake differs from the resource allocation of other projects and processes in that the time to do the repair and recovery is not known before the event, and the priorities might change for different operational plans and strategies. The trunk network of the Tokyo water distribution system was used as an example to present the scenario and to model the restoration process. The timed simulation allowed visualizing the restoration progress, which is usually depicted as a restoration curve. The results for the restoration time for multiple simulations are presented.