A Graph-Based Approach for Representing Wastewater Networks from GIS Data: Ensuring Connectivity and Consistency

Wastewater network management is a critical aspect of ensuring public health and environmental sustainability. Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are widely employed for managing and analyzing wastewater network data. However, storing data in separate databases in GIS poses challenges in accurately representing the connectivity of the wastewater network components, which are connected in reality. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel graph-based approach for representing wastewater networks. In this approach, each component of the network, such as manholes, structures, pumps, etc., is represented as a node in the novel graph, while the pipes represent the connections between them. By adopting this graph-based representation, the true interconnected nature of the wastewater network can be effectively captured and visualized. This paper begins by discussing the limitations of the traditional separate databases approach in GIS for representing wastewater networks. Subsequently, the graph-based algorithm for transforming the GIS representation into a graph-based representation is presented. To validate the proposed approach, real-world wastewater network data is employed, demonstrating its ability to capture the network’s connectivity and facilitate network analysis.