Application of GIS in water distribution system assessment

Water distribution system (WDS) is the most important component of water supply chain--supplying water from source to consumer. When supply system is poorly maintained, contaminants enter into the supply pipes through cracks and this leads to significant public health risk. Being underground, pipe condition assessment is a difficult task. In this paper, a case study is presented for assessment of pipe condition in a water distribution network of Moinbagh area in Hyderabad (India). The mathematical model-Pipe Condition Assessment (PCA) Model was used, which utilizes GIS based maps of water distribution network, sewer network, drains and soil as input in addition to data on physical properties of the network as well as operational parameters. The application of PCA identified that only 3% pipes in the network were in bad condition.