Cost-Benefit Analysis and Uncertainty Analysis of Water Loss Reduction Measures: Case Study of the Gothenburg Drinking Water Distribution System

Annika Malm (), Frida Moberg (), Lars Rosén () and Thomas Pettersson ()

Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), 2015, vol. 29, issue 15, 5468 pages

Abstract: Methods for controlling leakage from water distribution systems vary with respect to cost and personnel requirements. The benefits of leakage reduction should be compared to the cost of alternative management options to determine which is the most cost effective. This study presents a new method for evaluating leakage from water distribution systems via combined cost benefit analysis (CBA) and uncertainty analysis. The case study considers four alternatives for leakage control. The results show that the inclusion of uncertainty analysis represents an improvement over traditional CBA where there is a high degree of uncertainty in the input data. Moreover, a clearer understanding of the available alternatives is obtained in situations where multiple alternatives show similar performances and there is no clear best choice. It was determined that in the case study distribution system, it is significantly more cost-effective to reduce leakage volumes by reactively repair broken pipes than to proactively replace them, despite large leakage losses. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

Keywords: Cost benefit analysis; Leakage control; Pipe renewal; Pipe replacement; Uncertainty analysis; Water loss (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11269-015-1128-2

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