Resiliency evaluation for the water distribution system considering earthquake scenarios for Indian case studies

ABSTRACT The main aim of the study is to assess the resiliency of water distribution systems (WDSs) to natural hazards like earthquakes for Indian networks using the water network tool for resiliency (WNTR). The methodology used in this study in this study consisted of simulation of earthquake scenarios by assigning hypothetical earthquake parameters and determining the major and minor damages of WDN components and the resiliency. No study has been performed in Indian Scenarios to determine the resiliency of WDSs to natural hazards such as earthquakes using WNTR. Two practical case studies are considered to evaluate the resiliency of WDSs of the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Kurukshetra and Bhuj, India, considering the vulnerability of WDSs to earthquake scenarios. It is observed that the distance to the epicenter and earthquake parameters, magnitude, depth, and epicenter, and network layout play an important role in estimating the severity of damage in both networks. For NIT Network, it is observed that the closer the location is to the earthquake's epicenter, the more the NIT water distribution networks (WDNs) resilience is reduced, to 0.00507 from 0.022648. The Todini resilience index (RI) of Bhuj's WDN was 0.018541 and the post-earthquake RI dropped to 0.011151. This indicates that the network's resilience significantly decreased due to the earthquake's impact. It indicates significant damage and reduces the ability of the network to maintain water pressure and supply, emphasizing the need for a strong infrastructure in earthquake-prone areas.