You can add zones to your network at any time. To do it, simply upload polygon files (either Shapefiles or GeoJSON) to use as zones in your model.
Make sure your files contain:
- An ID column with the zone(s) ID(s)
- Inlets and outlets field/column (can contain multiple inlets/outlets as a comma-separated list)
- Base demand, demand patterns, and total demand by zones
Qatium will trace the zones to automatically detect the boundary valves for each.
Zone ID
Most IDs are usually defined by default. If there’s no ID specified for your zones, Qatium will use “zone #” (where # is a number) for your imported zones.
For example: ZONE 1, ZONE 2, ZONE 3
If you want to rename them, go to:
- GIS Field = ID
- EPANET property = ID
Qatium will check for duplicates and complete any duplicate IDs with “#[number]”.
For example: 3 zones with the ID “MyZone” will become “MyZone”, “MyZone#2” and “MyZone#3”
Inlets & outlets
Inside your zones, you can specify which of the elements with flowmeters are inlets or outlets. If you have flowmeter data,it will improve the overall accuracy of your network in the following 2 ways:
- It allows you to adjust demands in each zone
- It allows Qatium to set the boundaries of each zone more precisely, and determine which elements belong to it
To add inlets and outlets to your zones, edit your GIS files following the table below.
Inlets
| Field | Inlets |
|---|---|
| Attribute | Inlet ID (can be several separated by a comma) |
Outlets
| Field | Outlets |
|---|---|
| Attribute | Outlet ID (can be several separated by a comma) |
How Qatium processes that data
If not specified, Qatium will ignore it and you won’t see it on the platform.
Demands
You can specify Base demand, Demand patterns and Total demand by zones in your GIS files.
Base demand
| Field | BaseDemand |
|---|---|
| Attribute | [value] |
Demand pattern
| Field | DemandPattern |
|---|---|
| Attribute | [value], [value], etc. |
Total demand
| Field | TotalDemand |
|---|---|
| Attribute | [value] |
Here’s how Qatium processes your data depending on what you have specified:
- If both Base demand and Demand pattern are specified in the files, we process that data as it is.
- If only Base demand is specified, we assign the specified Base demand value to all the junctions within the zone. We infer the Demand pattern as an array with a demand factor of 1. I.e., there is no period modulation.
- If only the Demand Pattern is specified: we infer the Base demand as 0.
- If Total demand by zones is specified: the total demand is distributed proportionally among the junctions within the specified zone. This is done by counting the junctions in the area defined by the GIS polygon layer and dividing the total demand equally among them.
- If both Base demand and Total demand are specified: the Total demand takes priority, and the Base demand is ignored.
You can assign different demand patterns or total demands per network zone by uploading a valid GeoJSON or Shapefile that contains a “MultiPolygon” or “Polygon” geometry.
Check the accepted aliases for each property in the additional resources.
⚠️ Important: The length of the DemandPattern is not limited. Each value corresponds to an hour or the specified pattern time step defined in the INP. You can add as many comma-separated values as required.
💡 Tip from Q: Download the Zones file example for a demo of the data to include.