A methodology is developed for optimal design and/or operation of a water distribution system that is to operate under one or several loading conditions. Decision variables may be design variables, such as pipe diameters, or control variables, such as heads and flows. The objective function may include the initial cost of the design, the cost of operation, the physical measures of performance, and the penalties for violating constraints. Constraints may be imposed on the decision variables and on the performance of the system under each loading. Flow solutions are obtained by a modified Newton‐Raphson method employing sparse matrix techniques. Optimization is obtained by a combination of the generalized reduced gradient and penalty methods. Implementation in a computer program and its use on a test problem in both batch and time‐sharing modes are described, and it is concluded that the method is computationally feasible. The many different ways in which it can be used to analyze, design, and operate water distribution systems are outli
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