Dr Ivan Stoianov, Imperial College London

Dynamically adaptive water supply networks (DA-WSNs) are an advanced type of digital twin that will enable water utilities to reduce leakage and energy use, and improve their resilience. Their use will also improve incident response, including the provision of water for firefighting, and sustainability. They do this by changing connectivity and hydraulic controls to manage multiple and often competing operational goals.

This Research Fellowship aims to develop optimisation and computational methods to design, implement and control DA-WSNs. Doing this will require considerable investment in novel monitoring and control technologies, analytical methods and new skills and expertise among water system operators, service technicians and managers. Additionally, because there are multiple competing operational objectives, we must tailor mathematical optimisation methods to ensure that all objectives are properly balanced as DA-WSNs are designed and managed.

The research programme aims to:

• Advance and evaluate mathematical optimisation methods to support the design, implementation and control of large-scale DA-WSNs

• Deploy and assess over a long period the developed methods in two large-scale networks operated by Anglian Water and Bristol Water

• Produce best practice guides and training for hydraulic engineers, water network operators and policymakers to develop adequate expertise for the design, implementation and control of DA-WSNs.

The research programme is supported by Anglian Water, Bristol Water, Cla-Val UK and Imperial College London.