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Water
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Increasing the Efficiency of Urban Water Supply
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Increasing the Efficiency of Urban Water Supply

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Urban Water Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 May 2022) | Viewed by 6757

Special Issue Editor

Prof. Dr. Jesús Muñuzuri

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Engineering, University of Seville, Sevilla, Spain
Interests: optimization; efficiency; distribution; logistics; assett management

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Drinking water is an increasingly valuable resource due to water scarcity and the large budgets spent on extracting and treating the water, on operating water networks and on guaranteeing long-term sustainability. The efficiency of urban water supply is therfore essential to reduce the amount of resources required for these tasks.

In the domain of urban water utilities, efficiency can be related to cost, service, the environment, social aspects, etc. The literature contains multiple examples of efficiency measurement approaches applied to those utilities, and of procedures and techniques applied by them to increase their efficiency. This Special Issue will focus on both aspects, within the framework of managing water supply networks in the long run. The Guest Editor invites original research contributions related to the following areas:

  • Water governance, tariffs and regulatory processes regarding the management of water supply systems.
  • Plans assessment and proposals to improve efficiency and sustainability of urban water supply.
  • Analysis of the sector in order to detect of weaknesses and strengths.
  • Benefits of the predictive maintenance of water distribution networks.
  • Development and uses of Big data and machine learning techniques in the water industry.
  • Intelligent decision systems in water supply networks.

Prof. Dr. Jesús Muñuzuri
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • big data in the water industry
  • efficiency
  • machine learning
  • planning
  • predictive maintenance
  • sector analysis
  • urban water utilities
  • water demand management
  • water policy

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 6628 KiB  
Article
An Operative Framework for the Optimal Selection of Centrifugal Pumps As Turbines (PATs) in Water Distribution Networks (WDNs)
by Francesco Pugliese and Maurizio Giugni
Water 2022, 14(11), 1785; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14111785 - 01 Jun 2022
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 1740
Abstract
The current significant increase in energy consumption has resulted in the need to develop and implement effective approaches for defining alternative and sustainable solutions to couple primary resources with supporting methods of energy generation. In the field of effective water distribution network (WDN) [...] Read more.
The current significant increase in energy consumption has resulted in the need to develop and implement effective approaches for defining alternative and sustainable solutions to couple primary resources with supporting methods of energy generation. In the field of effective water distribution network (WDN) management, the suitability of combining pressure regulation with small-scale hydropower generation is attracting even more interest, given that it can possibly reduce water leakages, as well as produce attractive rates of renewable energy. Specifically, pumps as turbines (PATs) are widely considered a viable solution because they combine hydraulic benefits with affordable investment and management costs. Nevertheless, despite several approaches available in the literature for the optimal selection and management of PATs, choosing the most suitable device to be installed in the network is still a challenge, especially when electrical regulation is arranged to modulate the PAT rotational speed and optimize the produced energy. Several approaches in the literature provide interesting solutions for assessing the effectiveness of electrical regulation when a PAT is installed within a water network. However, most of them require specific knowledge of the PAT mechanical features or huge computational efforts and do not support swift PAT selection. To overcome this lack of tools, in this work, an operative framework for the preliminary assessment of the main features (the head drop and the produced power at the best efficiency point (BEP), the impeller diameter and the rotational speed) of a PAT is proposed, aimed at both maximizing the daily produced energy and performing challenging economic selection. Then, it is assessed by estimations of the corresponding payback period (PP) and the net present value (NPV). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Increasing the Efficiency of Urban Water Supply)
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14 pages, 1491 KiB  
Article
Sustainable Development and Efficiency Analysis of the Major Urban Water Utilities in Spain
by Alicia Robles-Velasco, María Rodríguez-Palero, Jesús Muñuzuri and Luis Onieva
Water 2022, 14(9), 1519; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14091519 - 09 May 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1903
Abstract
In Spain, the water supply service is a municipal responsibility and in general is a sector without competitors. For this reason, an efficiency analysis attains greater significance. This study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate the efficiency of different urban water utilities. [...] Read more.
In Spain, the water supply service is a municipal responsibility and in general is a sector without competitors. For this reason, an efficiency analysis attains greater significance. This study uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to estimate the efficiency of different urban water utilities. An extensive data search, where several variables such as the capital expenditure, the cost of material, or the labor have been recorded, has allowed evaluating the relative efficiency of the most important Spanish water distribution networks in using their resources. Furthermore, their sustainable efficiency has also been evaluated by including a variable representing the percentage of water losses. Results reveal the weaknesses of inefficient utilities and help to detect potential aspects that these companies should improve. For instance, there is an evident incorrect management of the costs of material by many urban water utilities, which does not happen with the labor. Additionally, the most efficient water utilities regarding the sustainable efficiency help to discover target percentages of water losses for the inefficient ones. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Increasing the Efficiency of Urban Water Supply)
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17 pages, 4114 KiB  
Article
Water Supply Management Index: Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico
by Mayra Mendoza Gómez, Daniel Tagle-Zamora, Jorge Luis Morales Martínez, Alex Ricardo Caldera Ortega, José de Jesús Mora Rodríguez and Xitlali Delgado-Galván
Water 2022, 14(6), 919; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14060919 - 15 Mar 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2516
Abstract
In order to guarantee the sustainability of the potable water supply service, a water utility must generate improvements in its performance in an integrated manner. The objective of this research is to analyze and provide information about the components and indicators used by [...] Read more.
In order to guarantee the sustainability of the potable water supply service, a water utility must generate improvements in its performance in an integrated manner. The objective of this research is to analyze and provide information about the components and indicators used by the water utility of Leon, Guanajuato, Mexico, which directly impact water management. The Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Logic (FL) methodologies were applied. The study determined the trends and evolution over time from 2002 to 2017. From the combination of both methodologies, a Water Supply Management Index was obtained with an average value of 0.79, which shows positive progress for water resource management by the water utility. However, the traditional indicators are insufficient and require particular attention. The analysis helped to identify those indicators that do impact water management and their ability to measure the sustainability of the city’s water utility. This may make it possible to monitor the progress toward the accomplishment of Sustainable Development Goal 6 (SDG 6), by performing an evaluation and thorough analysis of the status of water resources. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Increasing the Efficiency of Urban Water Supply)
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