Reliable access to potable water is a fundamental requirement for public health and urban functionality, particularly during emergency situations such as natural disasters, infrastructure failures, or humanitarian crises. Urban water distribution systems are classified as critical infrastructure due to their essential role in sustaining life, supporting emergency response, and maintaining societal stability. Disruptions to these systems can lead to severe health risks, economic losses, and cascading failures across other urban services (World Health Organization [WHO], 2017).

In recent years, the concept of infrastructure resilience has gained prominence in civil engineering and urban systems planning. Resilience refers to the ability of a system to absorb disturbances, adapt to changing conditions, and recover functionality within an acceptable timeframe (Bruneau et al., 2003). For urban water systems, resilience is not solely dependent on the robustness of individual components but also on the interactions between supply sources, storage facilities, distribution networks, and alternative delivery mechanisms. Traditional design approaches that evaluate subsystems in isolation often fail to capture these interdependencies, limiting their effectiveness under emergency conditions (AWWA, 2019).

Emergency water distribution presents unique challenges, including rapidly fluctuating demand, partial or complete failure of pipe networks, limited accessibility, and the need for redundancy. Studies on disaster response infrastructure emphasize the importance of hybrid delivery strategies that combine centralized systems with decentralized or mobile solutions,  such as elevated storage and water trucking, to ensure service continuity when primary systems are compromised (Reed et al., 2009; WHO, 2017). These strategies increase system flexibility and reduce vulnerability to single points of failure.

To address these challenges, this project develops an Integrated Urban Emergency Water Distribution System using a combined ontological and parametric modeling approach. Ontologies enable structured representation and transparent sharing of system knowledge across the systems, while parametric models allow rapid evaluation of design alternatives and scenario-based performance. By integrating multiple civil-engineered products, including buildings, water supply systems, storage infrastructure, distribution networks, and road systems, within a shared urban context, the project supports system-level reasoning and resilience assessment. This integrated framework enables the exploration of alternative configurations and supports informed decision-making for resilient urban water infrastructure under emergency conditions.