Division method for water distribution networks in hilly areas

Water distribution systems in hilly areas are always divided into several zones due to the undulating terrain. The present approach of dividing water distribution systems lacks an assessment index and is characterized by a low degree of automation. With the building of a mathematical model, this paper introduces two indicators – pressure limitation and pressure variation – to enable the automatic division of the water supply pipe network. It prioritizes economic index as the objective function in the evaluation of the division of water distribution systems in hilly areas, and then selects the optimal division scheme by generic algorithm in a large number of candidates. The SY terrain in YW City China is used for verification. Compared to traditional water supply partition methods, this procedure is easier to operate time-savingly by staff and is more automatic.