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Abstract

The concept of a water grid is emerging in the Australian water industry as a potential solution to address water scarcity in urban areas. A water grid comprises a network of pipelines that interconnect bulk water sources across supply systems to allow water from areas of surplus to be moved to areas that face a shortfall, managing risk at a regional level beyond the catchment. The operation of water grids raises new challenges, such as: • optimising movement of water across a complex network to meet multiple objectives such as resource and energy efficiency, operational cost and environmental flows; • incorporating multiple sources of uncertainty; and • implementing water trading and markets. This paper reviews such challenges of water grid management and outlines a framework to further investigate some of the research questions.

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