ABSTRACT
Pipes are a common feature of water supply systems and have many advantages over open channels. They are completely enclosed, usually circular in section and always ow full of water. This is in contrast to channels which are open to the atmosphere and can have many different shapes and sizes – but more about channels in Chapter 5. One big advantage of pipes is that water can ow uphill as well as downhill, and so land topography is not such a constraint when taking water from one location to another.
