Patent ID: 7457735

Claim:
A method of automatically calibrating a water distribution model of a water distribution network, comprising the steps of: (A) selecting calibration parameters to be adjusted to calibrate the water distribution model, the calibration parameters including link status and one or more of, pipe roughness and junction demand; (B) collecting field observed data including a pipe flow measurement and a junction pressure measurement for at least one point in the water distribution network, and including corresponding loading conditions and boundary conditions describing settings of valves or pumps that existed in the network when said field observed data was collected and passing such information to a genetic algorithm module; (C) generating at said genetic algorithm module a population of calibration solutions that comprise a set of calibration results, using a genetic algorithm; (D) running multiple hydraulic simulations of each solution to obtain a set of predictions of pipe flows and junction pressures at selected points in the network, corresponding to the loading conditions and associated boundary conditions when the field observed data was collected; (E) performing a calibration evaluation including computing a goodness-of-fit value for each calibration solution based upon differences between field observed values and said predictions; (F) repeating steps (C) through (E) until a user-selected desired goodness-of-fit value is obtained resulting in a corresponding calibration solution for calibrating a water distribution model; and (G) building a calibrated water distribution model using the desired set of calibration parameters.