Avoid DMA Setbacks: Save Time and Reduce DMA Errors with Hydraulic Modelling

Inadequate pressure, redundancy concerns and costly implementation are all pitfalls of District Metered Areas that prevent many from successfully managing and controlling water loss. As we have already discussed in our previous newsletter articles, a key component of establishing a DMA is hydraulic analysis. This is well documented in the AWWA M36 Water Audits and Loss Control Programs Manual. This is where hydraulic modelling becomes a powerful tool to ensure the integrity, functionality, and sustainability of your DMA design.

During DMA design, utilities must assess the hydraulic behaviour of their proposed DMA zones. This includes maintaining sufficient pressure for all customers under peak and off-peak demand conditions, preventing unintended flow paths, and ensuring adequate fire flow and emergency capacity. Without detailed hydraulic analysis, these goals are difficult to guarantee. This is why a robust model is more than just helpful; it's essential.

How HydraLink helps clients establish DMAs using hydraulic modelling

• Simulate Real-World Conditions — Hydraulic models simulate the movement of water through your distribution system using real data, allowing you to test proposed DMA configurations virtually before making physical changes.
• Validate Isolation Points — Ensure that all inlets/outlets are accounted for, and that unintended cross-connections are identified and removed.
• Assess Pressure Zones — Detect areas of low or high pressure, evaluate impacts of valve closures, and support the design of pressure-reducing valves (PRVs) if needed.
• Ensure Fire Flow Compliance — Models help simulate fire flow scenarios under worst-case demand and elevation conditions.
• Optimize Meter Placement — Models can highlight optimal meter locations for accuracy and guide meter selection.

Utilities that integrate hydraulic modelling into their DMA planning often find fewer design revisions during implementation, faster identification of anomalies, more accurate water balances and leakage detection, and reduced costs in the long term due to fewer surprises.

Whether you're using EPANET, InfoWater, WaterGEMS, or any other commercial-off-the-shelf software, we can help you make sure that your hydraulic model is calibrated using field pressure and flow data, updated with recent asset and demand information, and validated with SCADA/AMI insights for accuracy.

Enjoying your summer vacations? Not likely if you are managing a water utility. Summer is peak water-use season as demand surges with people spending more time at home and watering their lawns, creating additional stress on the water distribution systems. Even if the rest of the world seems to be sipping cocktails on the beach, some of us are still here keeping the water flowing — and HydraLink is here to support you.

HydraLink's Quick DMA Design Checklist

• Simulate peak/off-peak and fire flow scenarios before physical changes.
• Double-check for unintended cross-connections between zones.
• Monitor and adjust for high/low pressure risks.
• Plan PRVs where needed for stable operation.
• Place meters where they'll capture accurate, useful data without redundancy.
• Keep your model calibrated with the latest field data and demand info.