Flood resilience of a water distribution sytem

Since extreme weather events such as heavy rains and floods are becoming more frequent and severe due to global warming, methods to evaluate environmental consequences and mitigation strategies are receiving an increasing attention. In this context, we propose an approach to estimate indirect damages caused by a flood on a Water Supply System (WSS). To this end, we combine analysis of an inundation model, which computes the floodwater depth over time on the studied territory, and evaluation of a hydraulic network model by a Pressure-Driven Demand (PDD) approach, which also allows for demand–response mechanisms. Flood damage is assessed in terms of both lack of service experienced by inhabitants and length of pipeworks contaminated by floodwater. The approach is experimented on the WSS of Florence, Italy, which serves about 380000 users and lies in a floodprone territory. A sensitivity analysis is with respect to demand–response efficiency, speed, and start time.