Resilience Analysis of Potable Water Service after Power Outages in the U.S. Virgin Islands
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 148, Issue 12
Abstract
The two Category-5 hurricanes that impacted the United States Virgin Islands in 2017 exposed critical infrastructure vulnerabilities that must be addressed. While the drinking water utility has first-hand knowledge about how the hurricanes affected their systems, the use of modeling and simulation tools can provide additional insight to aid investment planning and preparedness. This paper provides a case study on resilience analysis for the island’s potable water systems subject to long term power outages. Power outage scenarios help quantify differences in water delivery, water quality, and water quantity during and after the disruption. The analysis helps illustrate important differences in system operations and recovery time across the islands. Results from this case study can be used to better understand how the system might behave during future disruptions, provide justification for investment, and provide recommendations to increase resilience of the system. The analysis framework can also be used by other utilities to explore vulnerability to long term power outages.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, or code generated or used during the study are proprietary or confidential in nature and may only be provided with restrictions (e.g., anonymized data). This includes the VIWAPA water distribution system models.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to acknowledge Noel Hodge, Brian Leonard, and Don Gregoire of VIWAPA for coordinating analysis and data access for this study. The authors also acknowledge Sahil Gulati and Leonard Wright of Witt O’Brien’s for their valuable input and support during this analysis. Daniel Eisenberg was funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the US DoD Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (RC20-1091). The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, or the US Government. Sandia National Laboratories is a multimission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-NA0003525. This paper describes objective technical results and analysis. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Energy or the United States Government. The USEPA through its Office of Research and Development funded and managed the research described herein under Interagency Agreement (IA #DW8992403601) with the Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories. It has been reviewed by the Agency but does not necessarily reflect the Agency’s views. No official endorsement should be inferred. EPA does not endorse the purchase or sale of any commercial products or services.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 148 • Issue 12 • December 2022
Copyright
© 2022 Published by American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 17, 2021
Accepted: Jun 23, 2022
Published online: Sep 30, 2022
Published in print: Dec 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Feb 28, 2023
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