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A state‐space representation of water quality (WQ) dynamics describing disinfectant (e.g., chlorine) transport dynamics in drinking water distribution networks has been recently proposed. Such representation is a byproduct of space‐ and time‐discretization of the partial differential equations modeling transport dynamics. This results in a large state‐space dimension even for small networks with tens of nodes. Although such a state‐space model provides a model‐driven approach to predict WQ dynamics, incorporating it into model‐based control algorithms or state estimators for large networks is challenging and at times intractable. To that end, this paper investigates model order reduction (MOR) methods for WQ dynamics with the objective of performing post‐reduction feedback control. The presented investigation focuses on reducing state‐dimension by orders of magnitude, the stability of the MOR methods, and the application of these methods to model predictive control.

Real‐time water quality control (WQC) in water distribution networks (WDN), the problem of regulating disinfectant levels, is challenging due to lack of (i) a proper control‐oriented modeling considering complicated components (junctions, reservoirs, tanks, pipes, pumps, and valves) for water quality modeling in WDN and (ii) a corresponding scalable control algorithm that performs real‐time water quality regulation. In this paper, we solve the WQC problem by (a) proposing a novel state‐space representation of the WQC problem that provides an explicit relationship between inputs (chlorine dosage at booster stations) and states/outputs (chlorine concentrations in the entire network) and (b) designing a highly scalable model predictive control (MPC) algorithm that showcases fast response time and resilience against some sources of uncertainty.