# Water Distribution System Design Using Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimisation

## TL;DR

This paper enhances the multi-objective particle swarm optimisation algorithm for designing water distribution systems by adding local search, leader assignment, and mutation strategies, leading to improved solutions on benchmark problems.

## Contribution

The paper introduces MOPSO+ with novel features and demonstrates its effectiveness in finding superior non-dominated solutions compared to existing methods.

## Key findings

- MOPSO+ outperforms previous algorithms on benchmark problems.
- New criterion for comparing Pareto fronts is proposed.
- MOPSO+ finds previously unreported non-dominated solutions.

## Abstract

Application of the multi-objective particle swarm optimisation (MOPSO) algorithm to design of water distribution systems is described. An earlier MOPSO algorithm is augmented with (a) local search, (b) a modified strategy for assigning the leader, and (c) a modified mutation scheme. For one of the benchmark problems described in the literature, the effect of each of the above features on the algorithm performance is demonstrated. The augmented MOPSO algorithm (called MOPSO+) is applied to five benchmark problems, and in each case, it finds non-dominated solutions not reported earlier. In addition, for the purpose of comparing Pareto fronts (sets of non-dominated solutions) obtained by different algorithms, a new criterion is suggested, and its usefulness is pointed out with an example. Finally, some suggestions regarding future research directions are made.