Journal of Resource Management and Decision Engineering In Press 2027 07 01 Hybrid Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Social Network Community Detection Framework for Optimal Management and Redesign of Urban Water Network Hybrid Reinforcement Learning (RL) and Social Network Community Detection Framework for Optimal Management and Redesign of Urban Water Network 1 18 EN Journal Article 2026 04 14 <p>This study presents a novel framework for water network sectorization that integrates reinforcement learning (Proximal Policy Optimization), social network search algorithms, and multi-objective optimization to simultaneously address water quality monitoring, hydraulic performance, and topological efficiency. Tested on the Thi-Qar, Iraq water distribution network, the proposed approach achieved substantial improvements: resilience deviation index dropped by 70%, balance index reached near-perfect uniformity (1.01), modularity improved by 9.7%, and average path length shortened by 11.9% while its deviation decreased by 43.5%. Critically, the framework fills a key literature gap by explicitly incorporating water quality objectives—minimizing detection time and contaminated volume while maximizing detection likelihood—alongside traditional energy and topological metrics. Results demonstrate that reinforcement learning-enhanced optimization effectively balances multiple competing objectives, offering water utilities a powerful decision-support tool for designing resilient, monitorable, and operationally efficient distribution systems, particularly valuable for developing regions where infrastructure investments require optimal allocation.</p> https://journalrmde.com/index.php/jrmde/article/download/435/402