Apparent Losses Analysis in District Metered Areas of Water Distribution Systems

As one of the most important component of Non-Revenue Water (NRW), apparent loss exists in all kinds of water distribution system but hardly can be assessed due to its complexity and invisibility. Aimed to analyze the different component of apparent loss on the basis of the characteristic of flow meters in district metered areas (DMA), an effective methodology to calculate the three primary parts of NRW is presented in this paper. In particular, the real loss assessment can be carried out by Minimum Night Flow (MNF) analysis; while the unauthorized consumption can be identified by consuming variation curve; finally, the metering error is calculated by the genetic algorithm with the integrated model based on IWA water balance audit. Application of this method in water distribution network of a steel-making enterprise improves its significance in controlling NRW of DMA. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014