Theory 70/Engineering & infrastructure/Distribution networks
Resilience Is Redundancy Against Demand
The claim
The reliability of a water distribution network is set by the ratio of redundant capacity to peak demand, so a looped network survives a main failure that a branched one cannot.
01Mechanism
Alternative paths carry flow when a link fails; the ratio sets how much can be rerouted.
02Prediction
Reliability should track the ratio.
03Refutation
Reliability tracking pipe condition would remove topology.