Dynamically Adaptive and Resilient Water Supply Networks for a Sustainable Future

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Through this Fellowship, I aim to develop fundamental scientific methods for the design, optimisation and control of next generation resilient water supply networks that dynamically adapt their connectivity (topology), hydraulic conditions and operational objectives. A dynamically adaptive water supply network can modify its state in response to changes in the operational conditions, performance objectives, an increase in demand and a failure. This is a new category of engineering (cyber-physical) systems that combine physical processes with computational control in a holistic way in order to achieve dynamic adaptability, resilience, efficiency and sustainability. Water utilities are facing an increasing demand for potable water as a result of population growth and urbanisation. Cities are reaching unprecedented scale and complexity and the reliable provision of safe water is a global environmental security challenge. New technologies and knowledge are urgently needed to meet environmental, regulatory and financial pressures. Recent advances in sensor and control technologies, wireless communication and data management allow us to gain extraordinary insights into the operation of complex water supply networks and their control. Novel simulation and optimisation methods are required to make use of the new knowledge about the dynamics of large-scale water supply systems and the ability to control their operation in order to improve resource and asset utilisation. In the course of pioneering and leading an extensive programme of applied research in dynamically adaptive water supply networks, I have identified fundamental mathematical and engineering challenges of how such complex systems should be designed, retrofitted, modelled and managed in order to address multiple operational applications either simultaneously or sequentially. For example, the network management can be optimised to reduce leakage, improve water quality and enhance incident response. Furthermore, developing a robustly scalable simulation and control system is extremely challenging due to the complexity of the computational tasks for medium to large-scale water supply systems. This research programme will investigate, develop and validate a novel analytical and robust computational framework for the concurrent design, operation and control of adaptive water supply networks that dynamically configure their connectivity (topology), hydraulic conditions and operational objectives. The proposed framework should simultaneously optimise the design (e.g. placements of advanced network controllers and monitoring devices) and the operational control (e.g. the optimal selection of functions and settings for the valves and pumps). This co-design approach also considers the hydraulic dynamics, uncertainties, environmental changes and the development of mathematical optimisation methods for network operability and controllability in order to manage the operation of complex water supply systems efficiently, intelligently and sustainably. This is an ambitious and transformative research programme that requires solving numerous problems spanning several disciplines in water systems engineering, applied mathematics, control engineering, cyber-physical systems and sensors research. The Fellowship will provide me with a unique opportunity to dedicate most of my time to develop, validate and champion into practice the design and control methods for dynamically adaptive, resilient and sustainable water supply networks.