Review on the Inclusion of Climate Factors in Water Main Failure Models

Failure of water mains can disrupt essential services, increase costs, and pose risk to public safety and health; therefore, accurate predictions of failure are important to infrastructure management. This study focuses on climate factors due to their impact on water main failures, which is less explored compared to other factors. It systematically reviews existing literature related to water main failure prediction models with the objective of gaining a better understating of the effect of climatic factors (a subcategory of environmental factors) on water main failures. More than 300 papers related to water main prediction models were identified and screened for climatic factors. Of these 300 research papers, 15 studies related to climatic factors were identified and reviewed in detail to evaluate the effect of climatic subfactors on the water main failures. The climatic parameters considered as parameters in water main failure models include temperature, rain deficit, drought, freezing index, and precipitation. The findings indicate that temperature and precipitation are the primary climatic factors influencing water main failures. Cold conditions were found to elevate failure rates in CI, PVC, and DI pipes, while warm conditions led to increased failure rates in steel and AC pipes. Additionally, pipes of various materials and sizes were found to have higher failure rates during seasons with low precipitation.