EXPLORE - Hybrid expert system for water networks management

A hybrid expert system called EXPLORE has been developed to manage the Sevi lle City water-supply system. The main difficulties are the lack of informa tion on management procedures, the complicated electrical tariff, the varia bility of the water network topology, and the dependency of the water deman ds, which is a major uncontrollable factor. EXPLORE reduces the cost of the operation of pumping the water to the different storage tanks. For this ta sk EXPLORE employs the water demand forecast to obtain an optimal daily pum ping schedule. EXPLORE has several additional benefits, in that it allows t he collection of the operator's experience and the refinement of the operat ion processes through the simulation of new strategies, and it provides ade quate training for new operators. The system has been applied to the manage ment of the Seville City water-supply system. A prototype has been tested a nd has provided great improvement in the electrical costs (a savings of 25% over the current operation).