ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with public investments in community water supply and sanitation systems, but many of the concepts described apply to other fields of investment. Intelligent programs are computer codes that can assist in the planning, design, and operation of systems. Looped water networks have closed circuits; a system with a single circuit. In the case of looped network design, the better the judgment of the user in selecting initial pipe diameters, the fewer the trials needed to obtain a satisfactory solution. Water storage reservoirs are typically very expensive to build. Their design can therefore benefit from the use of computer programs. A great deal of literature exists on optimization approaches to reservoir design. Much literature exists on capital budgeting models that can assist water and other agencies to determine when and how much to borrow to implement capital improvement programs and how to change prices over time to meet target revenue requirements.
