5 Conclusions
Given that the deployment of an increased number of pressure and flow sensors in a
single DMA is becoming more common and affordable, the automated analysis of
multiple pressure and flow signals to provide useful information for efficient and
timely leak/burst detection and localisation is of paramount interest to water companies. Pressure and flow measurements at some locations, however, can include
more information regarding an event than measurements at other locations. Furthermore, only a limited number of sensors can be installed in a DMA due to budget
constraints. In this context, a number of methodologies have been developed in the
last decade that aim at identifying the optimal placement of a small number of
pressure and flow sensors to capture the leak/burst effect no matter where in a DMA
the leak/burst occurs and then effectively use this information to provide reliable
detection alarms and accurately identify the approximate leak/burst event’s location.
A comprehensive review of these methodologies has been carried out and presented
in this chapter. After the introduction in Sect. 1, a synthesis and analysis of relevant
published work have been presented in Sect. 2. Then, specific issues encountered by
researchers when developing optimal placement of sensors for leak/burst detection
techniques have been discussed in Sect. 3 together with different approaches proposed to solve these issues. Finally, Sect. 4 has presented considerations regarding,
inter alia, the state of the art of optimal sensor placement techniques, the potential of
the reviewed techniques to benefit water companies and the current research gaps.
All this has enabled us drawing a number of conclusions, the most notable of which
is perhaps that the optimal sensor placement for leak/burst detection and localisation
problem remains unresolved despite the many efforts by researchers in the field. This
fact is exacerbated by the almost complete lack of field tests and validation of the
proposed techniques on real-life networks to enable assessing their true value and
practicality for beneficial use by water companies and the fact that comparing the
effectiveness of the different proposed approaches remains an almost impossible
task. The other important conclusions that can be drawn from the literature review
carried out in this chapter can be summarised as follows:
• Future optimal placement of pressure sensors studies should focus on simultaneously considering the possibility of detecting and, most importantly, localising
leaks/bursts.
• Hydraulic models are instrumental to the future development of cost-effective
sensor placement techniques for leak/burst detection and localisation purposes.
Adoption of more realistic hydraulic modelling practices such as considering
pressure-driven modelling, for example, is envisaged.
• Sensor placement methods that make full use of the hydraulic simulation results,
as opposed to methods that involve binarisation of the residuals/sensitivity
matrix, should be preferred. Further development of these methods to more
effectively deal with the various sources of uncertainties is envisaged, especially
for model-reality divergences that have not been considered by researchers so far.
Review of Techniques for Optimal Placement of Pressure and Flow Sensors. . .
55
Given that the deployment of an increased number of pressure and flow sensors in a
single DMA is becoming more common and affordable, the automated analysis of
multiple pressure and flow signals to provide useful information for efficient and
timely leak/burst detection and localisation is of paramount interest to water companies. Pressure and flow measurements at some locations, however, can include
more information regarding an event than measurements at other locations. Furthermore, only a limited number of sensors can be installed in a DMA due to budget
constraints. In this context, a number of methodologies have been developed in the
last decade that aim at identifying the optimal placement of a small number of
pressure and flow sensors to capture the leak/burst effect no matter where in a DMA
the leak/burst occurs and then effectively use this information to provide reliable
detection alarms and accurately identify the approximate leak/burst event’s location.
A comprehensive review of these methodologies has been carried out and presented
in this chapter. After the introduction in Sect. 1, a synthesis and analysis of relevant
published work have been presented in Sect. 2. Then, specific issues encountered by
researchers when developing optimal placement of sensors for leak/burst detection
techniques have been discussed in Sect. 3 together with different approaches proposed to solve these issues. Finally, Sect. 4 has presented considerations regarding,
inter alia, the state of the art of optimal sensor placement techniques, the potential of
the reviewed techniques to benefit water companies and the current research gaps.
All this has enabled us drawing a number of conclusions, the most notable of which
is perhaps that the optimal sensor placement for leak/burst detection and localisation
problem remains unresolved despite the many efforts by researchers in the field. This
fact is exacerbated by the almost complete lack of field tests and validation of the
proposed techniques on real-life networks to enable assessing their true value and
practicality for beneficial use by water companies and the fact that comparing the
effectiveness of the different proposed approaches remains an almost impossible
task. The other important conclusions that can be drawn from the literature review
carried out in this chapter can be summarised as follows:
• Future optimal placement of pressure sensors studies should focus on simultaneously considering the possibility of detecting and, most importantly, localising
leaks/bursts.
• Hydraulic models are instrumental to the future development of cost-effective
sensor placement techniques for leak/burst detection and localisation purposes.
Adoption of more realistic hydraulic modelling practices such as considering
pressure-driven modelling, for example, is envisaged.
• Sensor placement methods that make full use of the hydraulic simulation results,
as opposed to methods that involve binarisation of the residuals/sensitivity
matrix, should be preferred. Further development of these methods to more
effectively deal with the various sources of uncertainties is envisaged, especially
for model-reality divergences that have not been considered by researchers so far.
Review of Techniques for Optimal Placement of Pressure and Flow Sensors. . .
55