Inexact Management Modeling for Urban Water Supply Systems

Y. Xu

DHI-NTU Water and Environment Research Centre and Education Hub, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore

X. S. Qin

School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore

Because of disadvantageous climate and river-flow conditions, water utilization is critical for the studied city. Moreover, the water shortage crisis of city is intensified by the unequal distribution of rainfalls in different seasons and decreasing of the rainfalls in recent years. There is necessary to develop effective tools for assisting in urban water service providers and government agencies to generate rational water resources management scheme. In detail, the local managers are responsible for determining more accurately how much water is used in their region, how much water is available and how they can best provide or support water services for their region in the future at the cost as small as possible (Fattahi and Fayyaz, 2010). The shortage of urban water resources has become a major obstacle for sustainable socio-economic development of the cities and has aroused much attention over decades. There is an urgent need to incorporate water supply and demand in the cities into a general framework. Integrated Urban Water Supply Management (IUWSM) focuses on the integrated management of technical aspects of water services and is effective in relieving the shortage problems of water resources. However, IUWSM systems are often complicated with uncertainties that may exist in many system components and these complexities are further compounded by their interactive behaviors. Moreover, it is critical to have a comprehensive consideration of all related factors for managing water resources, involving technical, social, environmental, institutional, political, and financial aspects (Zarghami et al., 2008). The study will be a new attempt in advancing an integrated uncertainly-analysis tool for urban water supply management, and the approach is also applicable to other water resources management problems.

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