Multi-level dynamic zoning design to improve the restorative capability of resilience: An emergence response in water contamination flushing

The conventional district metered areas (DMAs) bounded by closed valves reduce space of emergency response actions to cope with system failure or emergency events for resilience improvement. In order to improve the restorative capability of zoning water distribution system (WDS), a novel dynamic DMA optimization design method and a coupled emergency response strategy are proposed. A multi-level zoning method is applied to determine optimization of water source areas (WSAs), pressure management areas (PMAs), and dynamic DMAs. A coupled emergency response strategy of WDS zoning, valve closure, hydrant flushing, and dynamic DMA adjustment is proposed and validated in a real large-scale water distribution network. The results show that the coupled emergency response strategy based on dynamic DMA can enhance capacity for dynamic emergency response and improve resilience during contamination flushing.