Although many tools and methods are available to help maintain distribution system water quality, a greater emphasis needs to be placed on quality of water at the customer's tap. The concept of water as a perishable product is a useful analogy for considering methods to reduce its travel time through pipes. The future of distribution system management will likely include a greater emphasis on real time monitoring of water quality constituents. This will help operators be more proactive to prevent water quality problems. Various types of network models (steady state, dynamic, water quality and real time) may play a more important role in the future for optimizing operations to produce the best quality water. Development of integrated GIS systems will also help water companies manage the tremendous amount of data on the distribution system and to better evaluate parts of the distribution system that need greater attention.
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