Battle of the water calibration networks (BWCN): A component status changes oriented calibration method for zonal management water distribution networks

Calibration is the prerequisite for a hydraulic model of water distribution system to be utilized in practice. Given the case-specific feature of model calibration, this paper introduces a method that is oriented by component status changes in zonal management water distribution systems. This method is specified for zonal systems in which the operation of every zone could be framed to a stable periodical performance based on control routines, which would not be affected substantially by condition variation in other zones or the effects could be deduced. The principle of this methodology is to identify scenarios with status changes of several crucial components in water distribution networks which give rise to significant effects on hydraulic performance at least in a certain region of the water distribution system. After, those scenarios could be used for calibration of both pipe roughness and demand pattern multipliers with measured data (e.g. SCADA data) as constraints. For verification, this methodology is applied to the case study of "The Battle of the Water Calibration Networks (BWCN)" based on understanding of the system features and behaviors according to available data and corresponding statistical analysis. The final outcomes demonstrate that this approach could reach acceptable results more efficiently if characteristics of the studied system could be well identified.