Hierarchical Clustering Analysis of Water Main Leak Location Data

Rehabilitation projects for old water mains typically require considerable capital investments. One of the economical ways of pursuing the rehabilitation projects is to focus on a specific area within the entire region under management. In this paper the hierarchical clustering methods that analyze spatial inter-relationship of location data are applied to about 8,000 water leak location data recorded in a case study area from 1992 to 1997. Among the hierarchical clustering methods Single, Complete, and Average Linkage Methods are used to identify clusters of the water leak locations and to divide the area according to the defined clusters. By comparing the clusters identified by the clustering methods, the best clustering method for the case study area is suggested. Prioritization of the area for maintenance is obtained based on the water leak incident intensity for the clustered area using the suggested best clustering method.