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.