Urban infrastructure systems have co-evolved with urban growth and development. As cities expand or morph, their water distribution networks change over time. It may often be unclear for utilities whether one expansion or development scenario is likely better than another in terms of hydraulic performance and reliability. Generally, natural networks (e.g., rivers, tree leaf venation, vasculature of biological organisms) exhibit high reliability and robustness. Therefore, these natural networks might shed the light on design principles to guide water distribution network design. This study reviews the literature uncovering optimality and design principles of biological flow networks, and then applies these rules to WDN design. While maintaining operational constraints, benchmark WDNs are re-generated using the optimality rules and functions of biological systems. Then hydraulic performance indicators (e.g., entropy and Todini index) and network-based performance indicators (e.g., cost and efficiency) of both the actual and bio-inspired designs are measured. The performance of bio-inspired WDN designs is compared with the performance of a given network’s actual design to evaluate if bio-inspired design does in fact improve the performance of water distribution networks.

Can Bio-Inspired Network Design Improve the Performance of Water Distribution Networks (WDNs)?

Created in 1999, the Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) is the recognized leader within ASCE for the integration of technical expertise and public policy in the planning, design, construction, and operation of environmentally sound and sustainable infrastructure impacting air, land and water resources.

[Paper Proceedings](https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483466)

Conference DOI: https://doi.org/10.26226/m.6329c39b68fb0e00131f77d2