WATER DEMAND PREDICTION USING ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK FOR SUPERVISORY CONTROL

With increase in population growth, industrial development and economic activities over the years, water demand could not be met in a water distribution network.  Thus, water demand forecasting becomes necessary at the demand nodes.  This paper presents Hourly water demand prediction at the demand nodes of a water distribution network using NeuNet Pro 2.3 neural network software and the monitoring and control of water distribution using supervisory control.  The case study is the Laminga Water Treatment Plant and its water distribution network, Jos.  The proposed model will be developed based on historic records of water demand in the 15 selected demand nodes for 60 days, 24 hours run. The data set is categorized into two set, one for training the neural network and the other for testing, with a learning rate of 50 and hidden nodes of 10 of the neural network model.  The prediction results revealed a satisfactory performance of the neural network prediction of the water demand. The predictions are then used for supervisory control to remotely control and monitor the hydraulic parameters of the water demand nodes. The practical application in the plant will cut down the cost of water production and even to a large extend provide optimal operation of the distribution networks solving the perennial problem of water scarcity in Jos. http://dx.doi.org/10.4314/njt.v36i1.19