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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

Fire hydrants are critical to urban fire response, giving emergency personnel access to water to protect communities and property. In coastal California’s Mediterranean climate, with hot, dry summers and occasional strong winds, understanding how hydrant networks, urban form, and response operations influence structure fire outcomes is essential. This study examines past structure fire incidents in urban areas of Santa Barbara County to (i) better understand where fires occur and (ii) identify drivers of loss and occurrence, with particular attention to how hydrant infrastructure relates to these outcomes. Spatial mapping is combined with statistical models of incident counts and monetary losses. Fires are primarily clustered around major activity centers. While hydrant availability is not associated with incident occurrence, population and housing density are primary predictors of where incidents occur. Loss severity increases with total suppression time and property area, and incidents beginning near dawn have substantially higher expected losses. After controlling for operational factors and property type, hydrant proximity and code-compliant access are not independently associated with loss magnitude, suggesting that damage in this setting is more sensitive to time to control than to differences in hydrant proximity. These findings support density-focused prevention efforts and call attention to reducing suppression time to limit damage.

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.

The increasing global demand for high-quality agricultural products poses significant challenges for water resource management while the traditional irrigation methods, reliant on open canal systems, are inefficient and environmentally detrimental, necessitating a shift to more efficient pressurized irrigation networks. However, designing these systems is complex and costly, primarily due to the high expenses associated with pipe materials. This research introduces a novel pipe length splitting (PLS) method which optimizes the pipe diameters and lengths by allowing a strategic splitting of the pipes under certain constraints (e.g. flow velocity, head losses etc.) aiming to reduce costs without sacrificing the network efficiency. In this work the proposed PLS method combined with the existing computationally efficient Simplified optimization method (SOM) offers a robust solution for cost minimization while it is very flexible and compatible also with various existing optimization methods (e.g. linear and dynamic programming). In this work the network under study was the existing open canal irrigation network of Limnochori in North Greece which was studied as a pressurized irrigation network. Applying the SOM in conjunction with the PLS, the comparative study shows a total cost reduction of 21,930€ while PLS affected 45% of the total number of pipes. These numbers can be considered remarkable considering that the network can be characterized as a small-medium sized network (107 hydrants). Ultimately, the PLS method is a valuable tool for engineers and decision-makers, which could be used also to other hydraulic works, providing economic benefits through cost savings while also supporting broader goals of environmental sustainability and water resource conservation.

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.