Evaluating water delivery systems using continuous objective measurements of supply and demand

This paper presents preliminary results from a 6 month long study to continuously monitor the performance of piped water delivery systems. Data was collected through the use of pressure transducers which were installed in water storage facilities to record water levels on a ten minute interval. Using data obtained from a rural site in Nicaragua, this paper explores a technique to extrapolate supply and demand flows passing in and out of storage tanks from water level data in order to better estimate actual daily per-capita and peak water demands. A firmer understanding of water supply and demand can lead to more informed design assumptions for water engineering professionals, and can provide a valuable metric for evaluating the performance of water supply infrastructure in rural communities.