Exploring residential minimum night consumption in a real water distribution network based on smart-meter data

An accurate estimation of leakages in water distribution networks is of primary importance for the definition of strategies aimed at ensuring an efficient management of water resources and avoiding water waste. However, in the case of methods based on water balance—such as the Minimum Night Flow met...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Discover water Vol. 4; no. 1; pp. 88 - 14
Main Authors: Alassio, Samuele, Marsili, Valentina, Mazzoni, Filippo, Alvisi, Stefano
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 22.10.2024
Springer Nature B.V
Springer
Subjects:
Aquatic Pollution
Case studies
Coastal Sciences
Drinking water
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Estimates
Hourly water-consumption data
Hydrogeology
Leakage assessment
Marine & Freshwater Sciences
Methods
Minimum night consumption
Monitoring
Oceanography
Residential users
Sociodemographics
Waste Water Technology
Water distribution networks
Water Management
Water Pollution Control
Water utilities
United Kingdom > UK
Water distribution networks
Hourly water-consumption data
Residential users
Leakage assessment
Minimum night consumption
Monitoring
ISSN:2730-647X, 2730-647X
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:An accurate estimation of leakages in water distribution networks is of primary importance for the definition of strategies aimed at ensuring an efficient management of water resources and avoiding water waste. However, in the case of methods based on water balance—such as the Minimum Night Flow method—inaccurate assessment of the minimum night consumption (MNC), e.g. the assumption of fixed MNC values from the literature, can heavily mislead the quantification of leakage level. This study aims at providing insights into the variability of MNC and the related drivers. In greater detail, hourly water consumption data of approximately 200 users are collected over a period of two years and subjected to a multi-phase methodology to obtain a detailed characterization of MNC, with and without considering the users affected by post-meter leakages. The study demonstrates that factors such as seasonality or the presence of post-meter leakages may strongly impact the MNC—the values of which can significantly deviate from the literature references—and thus lead to significant misestimation of network leakages in water systems. Graphical Abstract Highlights A methodology for the statistical analysis of minimum night consumption (MNC) based on the daily water-consumption profiles at the user level is proposed. The methodology is applied to hourly-resolution water-consumption data collected over two years in a sample of over 200 users. Occupancy rate, seasonality, and presence of post-meter leakages affect MNC statistics.
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ISSN:2730-647X
2730-647X
DOI:10.1007/s43832-024-00150-5