A New Look at Urban Water Storage in a Series of Connected Dams. (March 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Howlett, Phil; Pearce, Charles; Piantadosi, Julia
• Is Part Of: Journal of applied probability. Volume 51:Number A(2014)
• Page Start: 118
• Page End: 135
• Publication Date: 2014-03
• Subjects: Urban stormwater, -- water storage, -- water distribution, -- systems of connected dams, -- Markov decision processes; 60J20, -- 15A18, -- 15B51, -- 60J22; 519.2
• DOI: 10.1017/S0001867800010120
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9002

Abstract

Abstract : We propose a discrete state-space model for storage of urban stormwater in two connected dams using an optimal pump-to-fill policy to transfer water from the capture dam to the holding dam. We assume stochastic supply to the capture dam and independent stochastic demand from the holding dam. We find new analytic formulae to calculate steady-state probabilities for the contents of each dam and thereby enable operators to better understand system behaviour. We illustrate our methods by considering some particular examples and discuss extension of our analysis to a series of three connected dams.