Thesis Defence: Resilience of small to medium drinking water systems: An assessment through the water-energy-carbon lens

Michelle Sofia Sarmiento Barrios, supervised by Dr. Rehan Sadiq, will defend their thesis titled “Resilience of small to medium drinking water systems: An assessment through the water-energy-carbon lens” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science in Civil Engineering.

An abstract for Michelle Sofia Sarmiento Barrios’s thesis is included below.

Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Please email rehan.sadiq@ubc.ca to receive the Zoom link for this defence.

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ABSTRACT

Drinking Water Systems (DWSs) are essential community infrastructure that ensures clean and safe water. However, unexpected events such as equipment failures, contamination incidents, floods, fires, and earthquakes can compromise their functionality. Small and medium DWSs (SM-DWSs) are particularly vulnerable due to limited resources, aging infrastructure, and higher operational costs. This underscores the need to improve their resilience, which has emerged as a critical element to enhance the operational capacity to face such challenges.

While physical infrastructure plays a crucial role in ensuring the availability of drinking water for communities, the resilience of DWSs extends beyond this and compromises other components. For instance, recognizing the interconnection with other sectors, such as energy and carbon, is critical. The water-energy-carbon nexus (WECN) defines the dynamic interplay among these sectors. Considering and understanding this nexus offers valuable insights to bolster their capacity to manage unforeseen events.

This research aimed to develop a WECN-based resilience assessment specifically tailored for SM-DWSs. The study follows a structured approach, which entails four phases. Initially, the factors influencing the WECN in SM-DWSs, along with challenges and opportunities, were identified. In this step, the WECN emerges as an opportunity to foster resilience in DWSs. Second, a critical review was conducted to identify indicators that capture the four dimensions of resilience in SM-DWSs, such as planning and financial, technical, social, and environmental. These indicators were subjected to multi-criteria decision analysis to select key resilience indicators (KRIs), which were linked to resilience attributes using “the concept of analysis” approach. Third, the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) was employed to aggregate KRIs within dimensions and estimate a resilience index (RI) with a bottom-up approach. Subsequently, three scenarios with different dimensions indices weights were employed to estimate the RI. The framework was applied to two medium-sized DWSs of the Okanagan Valley, BC, Canada, where the results demonstrate the applicability of the developed framework, providing an RI that can allow DWSs to monitor their systems and make modifications when necessary. Also, it will help utilities prioritize the need for improvements, monitor changes, and facilitate decision-making and strategic planning.