Water towers

Water towers

A water tower is a tall structure that is used to store water above the area where it will be used. Water is pumped into the tower to ensure adequate hydraulic pressure for water supply and fire flow requirements, especially in flat areas where water is normally fed to the consumer by gravity. Hillside tanks may also be employed for this purpose.From: Handbook of Environmental Health, Volume II [2019], Water Technology, Second Edition [2019], Optimal joint deployment of flow and pressure sensors for leak identification in water distribution networks [2018]

Water treatment and distribution

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Published in Nick F. Gray, Water Science and Technology: An Introduction, 2017

Nick F. Gray

As water is normally fed to the consumer by gravity, in flat areas water towers are required to ensure adequate hydraulic pressure. These tend to serve smaller water supply areas and are expensive to operate due to pumping, even though this is usually done at night during low electricity demand periods. Flats and office blocks require their own pumps to supply a sufficient head. The installation, operation and maintenance of such pumps are the responsibility of the owner.

Optimal joint deployment of flow and pressure sensors for leak identification in water distribution networks

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Published in Urban Water Journal, 2018

Ehsan Raei, Mohammad Reza Nikoo, Shokoufeh Pourshahabi, Mojtaba Sadegh

Highest water consumption occurs in the early morning and late afternoon, and lowest is at night. In order to ensure the water pressure for water supply and fire flow requirements, water towers and hillside tanks are employed. Tanks are responsible for water supply when water pressure drops in the network, and hence tanks’ water level reaches lowest level during the day, and maximum level at night when excess water is pumped back into the tanks. Since the concentration of water disinfectants (such as chlorine) can diminish over time, which may increase risks of deteriorated water quality in the network, all stored water in the tanks is discharged during the day. In other words, tanks have a memory of only one day. Pumping stations can be turned off during the day and turned back on during the night in order to minimize operational costs (Johnston and Brumbelow 2008, Shafiee and Zechman 2013).

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Water treatment and distribution

Optimal joint deployment of flow and pressure sensors for leak identification in water distribution networks