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Reasons for occasional, random pipe bursts in water distribution networks (WDNs) might come from numerous factors (e.g. pH value of the soil, the pipeline material). Still, the isolation of the damaged section is inevitable. While the corresponding area is segregated by closing the isolation valves, there is a shortfall in drinking water service. This paper analyses the vulnerability of segments of WDNs from the viewpoint of the consumers that is the product of the failure rate and the relative demand loss. Real pipe failure database, pipe material and pipe age data are used to increase the accuracy of the failure rate estimation for 27 real-life WDNs from Hungary. The vulnerability analysis revealed the highly exposed nature of the local vulnerabilities; the distribution of local vulnerability values follows a power-law distribution. This phenomenon is also found by investigating the artificial WDNs from the literature using N rule in terms of isolation valve layout, namely the ky networks, with similar results.

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