RAPID/Collaborative Research: Implications of Social Distancing Policies on Water Infrastructure Systems

这项快速反应研究（Rapid）赠款将展示水务公司提供的饮用水服务是如何受到2020年冠状病毒大流行期间全国大部分地区采取的社会距离政策的影响的。通过设计，社会距离政策导致了人类行为的巨大变化，因为家庭在原地避难，工业和商业部门暂停运营。这些变化的众多后果之一是城市供水系统中用水量的显著空间、时间和体积变化。这些变化有可能对供水系统、家庭和其他建筑物内的水龄和水质产生重大影响。此外，由于疫情大流行，公用事业公司在应对社交距离政策带来的未知和新出现的后果时，正面临前所未有的劳动力、财务和后勤挑战。因此，这项研究有可能防止基础设施资产受损，并在有管道供水的社区对公共卫生产生负面影响，这些社区已经采取了社交距离。因此，根据结果，该项目将为公用事业公司提供技术指导，以主动减轻这些潜在的负面影响。在这项研究中，现有的水表数据和新的访谈数据将用于确定与各种社会距离制度相关的用水模式的变化。接下来，将通过水力建模和水质采样分析来评估这些变化对配电系统压力和水质的影响。水力模型将识别和定位潜在的水分配问题，在一个大学校园，一个居民区，一个主要的商业，城市中心。这些数据与物理、化学和微生物水质分析相结合，将为社会距离条件下的水基础设施性能提供重要的新经验知识。来自全国各地公用事业公司的访谈数据将进一步验证调查结果，并使结果和潜在的缓解策略得以推广。与合作的水务公司合作，将整合这些组合数据集，以创建一系列可能的未来社会距离对配水系统的影响情景。经验验证的水力模型将用于确定每种影响情景对配电系统性能的影响，并测试公用事业公司在预计的未来大流行浪潮和社会距离期间可以实施的缓解策略。从广义上讲，本研究建立了工程理论，将人类用水模式与配水基础设施的性能和弹性联系起来。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant will demonstrate how drinking water services provided by water utilities have been impacted by the social distancing policies undertaken by much of the nation during the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. By design, social distancing policies have caused immense change in human behavior, as families shelter in place and industrial and commercial sectors pause operations. One of the many consequences of these changes is a significant spatial, temporal, and volumetric change in water use within municipal water distribution systems. These changes have the potential to substantially impact water age and water quality both within the distribution system and within homes and other buildings. In addition, utilities are facing unprecedented workforce, financial, and logistical challenges because of the pandemic as they respond to the unknown and emerging consequences of social distancing policies. As such, this research has the potential to prevent infrastructure asset damage and negative public health impacts in communities with piped water that have undertaken social distancing. Accordingly, and, as warranted by results, this project will create technical guidance for utilities to proactively mitigate these potential negative consequences.In this research, existing water meter data and new interview data will be used to identify changes in water use patterns associated with various social distancing regimes. Next, the impacts of these changes on the pressure and water quality in distribution systems will be evaluated via hydraulic modeling and water quality sampling and analysis. The hydraulic modeling will identify and locate potential water distribution problems in a university campus, a residential neighborhood, and a primarily commercial, urban downtown. These data, coupled with physical, chemical, and microbiological water quality analyses, will provide vital new empirical knowledge of water infrastructure performance under social distancing conditions. Interview data from utilities around the nation will further validate findings and enable the generalization of results and potential mitigation strategies. In partnership with collaborating water utilities, these combined datasets will be integrated to create a range of possible future Impact Scenarios of social distancing for water distribution systems. The empirically validated hydraulic models will be used to determine the implications of each Impact Scenario on distribution system performance, and to test mitigation strategies that utilities can implement during anticipated future waves of the pandemic and social distancing. Broadly, this research builds engineering theory to link human patterns of water use to the performance and resilience of water distribution infrastructure.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.