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\"Meet Lou. Lou has an important job ... as the neighborhood toilet for dogs on their walks. Useful as he may be, he gets the feeling that deep down inside, there might be more to him than that. He just doesn't seem to know exactly what yet. When disaster strikes, will Lou find out what he's made of and save the day?\"-- Provided by publisher

AWWA's Annual Conference & Exposition (ACE18) was co-located with the Conference and Expo of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). It was not the first time the two associations had worked together. In fact, they have been working together as far back as 1905, when fire hydrant couplings were standardized. The NFPA and AWWA came to work together on fire hydrant couplings is very interesting, it saves lives. This was a strategic way for the manufacturers to differentiate their products, but it also resulted in risks for communities. The NFPA began the process of establishing a national standard to solve the problem, including standardizing the threads for hoses and hydrants. Despite the importance of the fire hydrant coupling standard and the responsible step taken by NFPA and AWWA, communities were slow to adopt the standard. AWWA standards creating significant benefits and efficiencies to the water sector and those it serves.

Background Access to water and sanitation is a basic human right; however, in many parts of the world, communities experience water, sanitation, and hygiene (WaSH) insecurity. While WaSH insecurity is prevalent in many low and middle-income countries, it is also a problem in high-income countries, like the United States, as is evident in vulnerable populations, including people experiencing homelessness. Limited knowledge exists about the coping strategies unhoused people use to access WaSH services. This study, therefore, examines WaSH access among unhoused communities in Los Angeles, California, a city with the second-highest count of unhoused people across the nation. Methods We conducted a cross-sectional study using a snowball sampling technique with 263 unhoused people living in Skid Row, Los Angeles. We calculated frequencies and used multivariable models to describe (1) how unhoused communities cope and gain access to WaSH services in different places, and (2) what individual-level factors contribute to unhoused people’s ability to access WaSH services. Results Our findings reveal that access to WaSH services for unhoused communities in Los Angeles is most difficult at night. Reduced access to overnight sanitation resulted in 19% of the sample population using buckets inside their tents and 28% openly defecating in public spaces. Bottled water and public taps are the primary drinking water source, but 6% of the sample reported obtaining water from fire hydrants, and 50% of the population stores water for night use. Unhoused people also had limited access to water and soap for hand hygiene throughout the day, with 17% of the sample relying on hand sanitizer to clean their hands. Shower and laundry access were among the most limited services available, and reduced people’s ability to maintain body hygiene practices and limited employment opportunities. Our regression models suggest that WaSH access is not homogenous among the unhoused. Community differences exist; the odds of having difficulty accessing sanitation services is two times greater for those living outside of Skid Row (Adj OR: 2.52; 95% CI: 1.08–6.37) and three times greater for people who have been unhoused for more than six years compared to people who have been unhoused for less than a year (Adj OR: 3.26; 95% CI: 1.36–8.07). Conclusion Overall, this study suggests a need for more permanent, 24-h access to WaSH services for unhoused communities living in Skid Row, including toilets, drinking water, water and soap for hand hygiene, showers, and laundry services.

This article is devoted to the specifics of space planning in medical institutions for disabled people and the impact of these factors on the interior solution. The space-planning solution of such institutions should be easy-to-read, without a complicated plan. Communication zones should not have the function of a waiting area. It is offered to specially organize such zones with the installation of various information and announcement systems. Within the zones of space perception by disabled people, there should be handrails with tactile information, light-signal designations and other fixtures to facilitate the movement of disabled people. It is advisable to relocate disruptive equipment in the form of light switches, different maintenance boards, fire hydrants, and other equipment from this zone, which will result in the requirements for change in a number of regulatory documents. Special equipment should be installed in the lavatories and wards for disabled people. The color solution can be close to the solution of a dwelling unit.

Globally, fire causes considerable losses that can be alleviated by taking appropriate actions facilitated by systems supported by geo-information technologies. This research focuses upon the development of an approach for planning urban infrastructures, and particularly in the accessibility of fire hydrants. Accessibility of fire hydrants’ infrastructure in urban territories is one of the key elements in fire risk management and public safety. The main result of the research is a comprehensive and structured Geographic Information Systems (GISs)-based dataset for the fast and more efficient planning of fire hydrants in urban territories. The proposed framework for data collection and processing was used to determine the distribution of hydrants, location of fire brigade stations and areas and to demonstrate the capabilities of the existing municipal fire extinguishing systems in Vilnius City, Lithuania. Later on, research on fire hydrants’ accessibility, analysis of the location of protected and unprotected urban territories and marking of unprotected buildings, was carried out. The resulting map of unprotected urban territories can be of great benefit for understanding fire risks and offering more effective ways for fire risk management.

Shutting down a water supply line for maintenance, repairs and replacement of aging fixtures can be problematic for a water utility. When water supplies are shut down, customer complaints rise significantly, and in some situations, water can only be shut off for short periods of time due to industrial and agricultural demands. The Town of Pittsfield, Maine, was faced with having to replace seven hydrants in a single day and used ALPHA™ restrained wedge end fittings on five of the seven hydrants to achieve this goal. A case study and discussion of the technology used is discussed herein.

Abstract In recent decades, on-demand irrigation systems have been promoted to increase water use efficiency. This study focused on the assessment of two traditional rotational pressurized irrigation systems with a central pumping station in the Foggia Province (Italy). Irrigation system A has an area of 564 ha with 319 pipelines and 251 hydrants, and irrigation system B has an area of 445 ha with 280 pipelines and 214 hydrants. The nominal discharge of each hydrant is 10 l/s. In each of the two irrigation systems, 1000 different operation scenarios were investigated using the COPAM model. To evaluate the performance of the systems, the indices of Relative Pressure Deficit (RPD) and Reliability (RI) were used. Results showed that the systems are quite flexible and allow the required flow rate to be increased by 1.6 times the peak period flow rate, if necessary. With such increased discharges, it is impossible to guarantee the RPD (RPD≥0) and RI (RI = 1) indices in 47% of the hydrants in the irrigation system A and in 36.9% of the hydrants in the irrigation system B. An updated methodology for optimizing the pipe diameters starting from the current situation was also implemented. Around 23% of pipelines in each system were changed with such methodology. After the new optimization, the number of unsatisfied hydrants in both systems decreased by 94.1% (from 118 to 7 hydrants) and 82.3% (from 79 to 14 hydrants), respectively. Thus, with this methodology, the irrigation system performance can be improved.

The cost-effectiveness of collective irrigation networks hinges on several factors, encompassing both construction and operational expenses. Optimizing these networks is crucial for the profitability of irrigation communities. Additionally, the placement of network elements on the irrigable surface significantly impacts future maintenance and repair costs. In conventional irrigation network sizing methods, only the optimization of pipe diameters is taken into account, leaving aside the rest of the factors. This study delves into the significance of factoring in the cost of multioutlet hydrants during network design and how their positioning affects the overall cost. Typically, the design phase overlooks this aspect, resulting in suboptimal placements that strain hydraulic capacity and neglect associated costs. To address this, the study proposes an optimization approach utilizing geographic information systems (GIS) and the greedy randomized adaptive search procedures (GRASP) algorithm. By determining the optimal location and number of multioutlet hydrants required, the methodology aims to enhance network efficiency, on the one hand, in hydraulic terms when considering the sizing of the multioutlet hydrant and in economic terms in reference to the cost of installation and subsequent maintenance. Comparative analysis with networks designed using conventional methods reveals significant improvements, with up to 31.1% more hydrants required and a 14.8% reduction in overall costs. By obtaining a greater number of multioutlet hydrants, both the diameter and the linear meters of connections to the plot to be drawn are considerably reduced, which greatly reduces land excavation. This underscores the importance of strategically siting multioutlet hydrants to minimize expenses associated with network elements like conduits and civil works. Ultimately, optimizing hydrant placement enhances service quality while simultaneously reducing operational costs, thus enhancing the sustainability of collective irrigation systems.

Multioutlet hydrants as joint network infrastructure remain briefly addressed in the literature. Studies have always been limited to the individual treatment of the hydraulic components but not as a whole element. This study presents the main problems in the field of multioutlet hydrants within hydraulic infrastructure for pressure irrigation networks in Mediterranean agriculture. First, a field study with interviews was carried out in 30 water users associations (WUAs) between 2010 and 2018. Following this study, a laboratory test methodology was proposed to characterize this type of hydrant. Subsequently, four laboratory tests were performed on 12 multioutlet hydrants with different and common configurations found in irrigation networks: (i) head losses produced, (ii) global measurement precision in the multioutlet hydrant, (iii) blockage analysis in meters in vertical orientation, and (iv) hydrant behavior in response to hydraulic transients. The tests show that a horizontal configuration of the measuring elements with fewer than ten outlets and a suitable dimensioning of elements improve element maneuverability, instrument metrology, and irrigation emission uniformity. Finally, the importance of adequate design, dimensioning, and maintenance of the multioutlet hydrant devices is evidenced as a key point for the adequate management of collective pressure irrigation networks.

Water security is considered as one of the critical subjects that can arise from different issues, for instance, the injection of a poisonous pollutant into the drinking water system of a city followed by a terrorist attack. If the network lacks optimal operation to provide security against this threat, the whole population of the city can be affected by such an incident. This study aimed at preparing the optimal emergency response protocols by multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO). Furthermore, it calculates the risk of contaminants entering the network. The problem consists of three main objectives: 1) minimizing the number of operational interventions, 2) minimizing the number of polluted nodes, and 3) minimizing the number of exposed individuals. The location of closed valves and opened hydrants was chosen as decision variables. The proposed method is demonstrated using a benchmark and a real network.