Intermittent water supply (IWS) is widely used around the world, and with the increase in population and predicted future water scarcity, IWS applications seem to continue. While most of the existing studies on water supply concentrate on continuous water supply (CWS), the research focused on the IWS is now becoming mainstream. Hydraulic modelling is an effective tool for the process of planning, design, rehabilitation, and operation of water distribution systems. It helps significantly in engineers’ decision-making process. The necessity of modelling IWS systems arises from the complexity and variety of problems caused by intermittency. This paper offers a review of the state-of-the-art IWS modelling and identifies the key strengths and limitations of the available approaches, and points at potential research directions. Currently, neither computer software nor a practically used approach is available for modelling IWS. For a rigorous simulation of IWS, system characteristics first need to be understood, i.e., the user behaviour under pressure-deficient conditions, water losses, and filling and emptying processes. Each of them requires further attention and improvement. Additionally, the necessity of real data from IWSs is stressed. Accurate modelling will lead to the development of improved measures for the problems caused by intermittency.

For the analysis of water distribution systems, hydraulic simulation is of great importance; however, there are no suitable and holistic simulation tools for Intermittent Water Supply (IWS), so researchers are forced to utilise EPA-SWMM software, which needs some modifications to make it suitable for IWS analysis. This study focuses on providing a generic IWS analysis method in EPA-SWMM. Firstly, IWSs were classified according to coping strategies (e.g., household tank installation) customer satisfaction, supply schedule and duration to provide a unified terminology to the body of knowledge and assist in predicting the systems' behaviour, which should be reflected in the modelling process. Then EPA-SWMM based modelling approaches were compared paying attention to the case studies applied and two improved hydraulic modelling approaches have been proposed depending on the customer satisfaction of the network (namely i) unsatisfied IWS, ii) satisfied and partially satisfied IWS). Ultimately, customer satisfaction is the key, as the IWS systems are driven by user water consumption behaviours that are based on the demand-supply relationship. The application of the proposed methods to two different case studies and comparison with the state-of-the-art methods demonstrated their capability, compatibility with EPA-SWMM operating principles, and the ability to simulate the IWS system behaviour in a more realistic manner. In addition, the proposed methods are generic, unlike the available ones, which, in most cases, are only applicable to the specific case study.