New U.S. and International Water Main Break Studies: More Detailed Pipe Analysis but What Are We Doing with the Data?

摘要

This paper reviews the water main break research and findings from Utah State University, Purdue University, Louisiana Tech, which have formed the new foundation to help utilities to better understand what future trends of water main breaks may look like nationally. International main break data from Australia is also available to be used to contrast results from the U.S. The next generation of water main pipe performance research will include advanced analytics and predictive analysis using machine learning taking into consideration hundreds of potential pipe performance variables such as climate and environmental corrosive soil variables. Private digital pipe condition assessment firms are amassing huge predictive data sets not based in survey results but GIS main break files. Another effort includes the development of national pipe inventory and pipe performance database called the PipeID project at Virginia Tech. This federally funded project while offering direct benefits to over 500 participating water utilities can also provide regional insight to utilities and the aggregate data will be used for federal policy making on regarding water pipe performance standards.