Reducing Impacts of Contamination in Water Distribution Networks: A Combined Strategy Based on Network Partitioning and Installation of Water Quality Sensors

Abstract

This paper proposes a combined management strategy for monitoring water distribution networks (WDNs). This strategy is based on the application of water network partitioning (WNP) for the creation of district metered areas (DMAs) and on the installation of sensors for water quality monitoring. The proposed methodology was tested on a real WDN, showing that boundary pipes, at which flowmeters are installed to monitor flow, are good candidate locations for sensor installation, when considered along with few other nodes detected through topological criteria on the partitioned WDN. The option of considering only these potential locations, instead of all WDN nodes, inside a multi-objective optimization process, helps in reducing the search space of possible solutions and, ultimately, the computational burden. The solutions obtained with the optimization are effective in reducing affected population and detection time in contamination scenarios, and in increasing detection likelihood and redundancy of the monitoring system. Last but most importantly, these solutions offer benefits in terms of management and costs. In fact, installing a sensor alongside the flowmeter present between two adjacent DMAs yields managerial advantages associated with the closeness of the two devices. Furthermore, economic benefits due to the possibility of sharing some electronical components for data acquisition, saving, and transmission are derived.