Water management resilience analysis tool – a software for criticality analysis in water distribution networks

ABSTRACT Water distribution networks (WDNs) are essential for continuous and sufficient water supply but are vulnerable to failures in critical components like pipes and valves, impacting supply reliability. Identifying these critical elements through comprehensive evaluation and analysis helps operators quickly locate affected regions in various failure scenarios. Typically, this assessment is done using specialized models and software, but many tools are either overly simplistic or have restricted access, limiting their use. To bridge the gap between the disadvantages of commercial software licensing and the limited functionality of open-source alternatives, this article presents WMRAT (Water-Management-Resilience-Analysis-Tool). WMRAT is an open-source software prototype developed for criticality analysis in WDN. The academic prototype WMRAT is capable of running various failure scenarios, including single and multiple pipe failures, valve failures, segment failures, and leakage analysis. WMRAT integrates pressure-driven and demand-driven hydraulic-based criticality analyses with a graph-based criticality approach. The scenarios and methodologies in WMRAT are based directly on the established literature, and users can import WDN models, view analysis results on the platform on the local server, and export outputs in formats like Excel and GIS-compatible files. The software was successfully tested across three case studies with diverse characteristics, demonstrating its robustness and applicability.