Source: Water Resources Research
According to the World Bank, water utilities worldwide lose nearly 48 billion cubic meters of treated water annually from their water distribution systems. This is a financial loss for the utilities and a waste of a precious resource. Thanks to the development of smart demand meters and other Internet of Things technologies, there are innovative solutions to the perennial problem of leakage detection.
Huang et al. [2020] show how it is possible to find pipe leaks through smart water meters and valve operations during the nighttime period. The method has been applied to a real water pipe network where it managed to isolate leads that were subsequently found to really exist. Results show that leaking pipes can be efficiently located to within 3 to 6 percent of the total pipe length. It is anticipated that the proposed method will become increasingly applicable due to rapid developments of smart water meters and remote-control valves.
Citation: Huang, Y., Zheng, F., Kapelan, Z., Savic, D., Duan, H.‐F., & Zhang, Q. [2020]. Efficient leak localization in water distribution systems using multistage optimal valve operations and smart demand metering. Water Resources Research, 56, e2020WR028285. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020WR028285
―Jim Hall, Editor, Water Resources Research
Text © 2020. The authors. CC BY-NC-ND 3.0
Except where otherwise noted, images are subject to copyright. Any reuse without express permission from the copyright owner is prohibited.