New housing developments
| Available on | Qatium Marketplace |
Use case
Imagine you and your team are planning network extensions because of new housing developments. With Qatium, you can quickly evaluate whether the network has the hydraulic capacity to support the expansion.
Using the New housing developments simulator 
- Simulate the increase in demand at different points in your network
- Verify the network’s capacity to maintain adequate pressures and tank levels
- Evaluate how many households you can connect at a specific customer point assuming a given peak demand of each household
Data requirements
Depending on the data you have available for your network, you will be able to test different scenarios and/or get better insights. Double-check below if your network meets the data requirements to simulate new housing developments with Qatium.
The more information you have available, the better!
Minimum data requirements
With this data, you can test new housing developments in Qatium:
- Basic assets (supply sources, pipes, tanks, pumps, control valves and shutoff valves)
- Customer points or Hydrants
Essential for deeper insights
Additionally to the minimum requirements, and as a best practice for deeper insights, we recommend your network to have the following data:
-
Zones and live data (levels, flow and pressure sensors)
For a better understanding of how the new households in a specific zone affect to other DMAs pressures and service levels.- Flow sensors to adjust the zone demands
- Pressure sensors to improve the model accuracy
- Levels to set up the initial tank level
-
AMI
For a higher level of accuracy in your data.
Tools
To simulate new housing developments in Qatium you can use the following tools:
- New housing developments simulator
- Pressures panel
(optional)
- Flow panel
(optional)
- Satellite view
(optional)
-
Energy efficiency
(optional)
If the New housing developments simulator is not available on your networks, you can buy it from the Marketplace.
How to simulate new housing developments in Qatium
Step-by-step guide
Access your network in Qatium and follow these steps:
- Activate the New housing developments simulator
- Use the search
to locate the customer point or hydrant the households would be connected to.
Quick tip:
Activate the satellite view 
- Select the customer point, enter the number of houses on the simulator panel, and press enter.
We set a 1 l/s demand by default, you can change that value if you need to test other demands.
Repeat the same steps to test the scenario on different customer points.
Heads up:
Qatium will detect the peak hour and will run the simulation from there and not for the entire day.
Insights & results
The New housing developments simulator will show you the resulting pressure for the number of households you've set.
Activate the Pressures panel
Use the Network versions panel 
Quick tip:
You can combine the New housing developments simulator with the Energy efficiency plugin to see how constructions affect the network efficiency.
FAQs & Troubleshooting
How to add customer points to my network?
Customer points
Adding customer points to your network is very useful, as it allows you to:
- See the impact of an operation on the customers, when running scenarios
- Visualize customer consumption
- Add consumption info to the simulation to improve the accuracy of the network
- Get Water balance insights, especially related to efficiency
You can add customer points to your network through EPANET, GIS files or CSV files, following the specifications below. Qatium will process that information by running some validation checks and we’ll try to fill any gaps.
EPANET and GIS editor
Data you add to your files
GIS editor
| Field | Group |
| Attribute | customer |
If you already have a network in Qatium, you can upload a new layer to define customer points. Just make sure the file name matches the asset type. For example, customers.geojson.
Quick tip:
Download the GIS file example in the additional resources for a demo of the data to include.
Heads up:
When you import an INP without laterals and then upload a customer points layer, Qatium automatically generates laterals (CustomerPointID_L) connecting the customer points to the network. If needed, we split existing pipes and create new junctions for a better connection.
EPANET
| Property | Description (i.e., the extra properties column that appears in fifth position after the semi-colon) |
| Value | ;customer |
You can also specify customer points directly in the .inp file using a text editor.
How Qatium processes that data
If not specified: it will remain as a junction.
CSV files
You can export all the relevant data as a CSV file and then upload it directly to Qatium. There is no specific format required for your file but it should include longitude and latitude values, allowing Qatium to determine the coordinates.
Quick tip:
Download the CSV template in the additional resources for a demo of the data to include.
From here on, Qatium takes charge of transforming the data so that you can see them in your network. Here’s how this works:
- We establish element IDs by searching for columns with unique values and selecting the first one.
- Then apply the default GIS projection (WGS84).
You can add several points in the same coordinates and we will take care of distributing them so that you can access the results of each one.
If you download the network as .inp from Qatium, we’ll keep all the customer points but we’ll move them to their original position.
If you import that file again, it’ll all go back to the same place as before downloading the network.
Heads up:
Unless you define them as junctions or hydrants, Qatium will automatically consider to be customer points:
- All junctions with assigned or live demands.
- All the junctions at the end of Laterals (even though they don’t have demand data).
How to install a plugin from the Marketplace?
How to install a plugin from the Marketplace
Depending on your subscription plan, you’ll have access to different plugins from the Marketplace.
- If the plugin is included in your current plan, it will be directly accessible on your team networks and workspaces.
- If the plugin is available in a higher plan than yours, you can upgrade your subscription directly from the plugin page.
- Some plugins are open to all for purchase. Just add them to the cart and follow the steps provided.
Once installed, the plugins will be visible and ready to use on team workspaces and networks.