Author(s): Armando Di Nardo; Carlo Giudicianni; Roberto Greco; Manuel Herrera; Giovanni Francesco Santonastaso; Antonio Scala
Linked Author(s): Manuel Benjamín Narváez Herrera
Keywords: Complex networks; Water control and monitoring; Sensor placement; Water distribution network; Spectral graph
Abstract: Installing an efficient monitoring and control sensor system provides the possibility to carry out main tasks on Water Distribution Networks (WDNs) management and protection. Given the WDNs complexity, efficient numerical techniques are needed to support optimal monitoring system design. Generally, it is appropriate to locate sensors at highly connected places in the WDN with water flow reaching several parts of the network. This paper introduces a general method to support water utilities on the decision making process for an efficient water system monitoring. The proposal is based on graph spectral techniques that take advantage on spectrum properties of the adjacency matrix of the water distribution network graph. It is consequently created a novel tool-set of graph spectral techniques adapted to improve the water monitoring tasks and consequently simplify further sensor placement. This is approached with no need of hydraulic simulation, as data availability is often limited or not suitable to face anomaly events changing assets and distribution performance. A real water distribution network serving a town near to Naples is used to analyze the proposed graph spectral methodology. In order to test the proposed procedure, a comparison was made with a sensor layout obtained through a bi-objective optimization, through some performance indicators. The results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed spectral procedure.
Year: 2018