Automatic burst and leak detection in water distribution systems plays an important role in water saving and management. This research develops a novel burst detection method of using adaptive Kalman filtering on hydraulic measurements of flow and pressure at district meter area (DMA) level. Adaptive Kalman filtering is used to model normal water usage (or alternatively water pressure), so the residual of the filter (e.g., the difference between the predicted flow and the measured flow) represents the amount of abnormal water usage relating to the bursts (or newly occurred leaks) in the downstream network. The results from a series of engineered tests which simulated flushing show that the size of the bursts and leaks strongly correlates with the residual of the filter. Finally, the method was applied to data from several real DMAs in the north of England, and the results show that the detected bursts correspond well to known historical operational information such as customer complaints’ records and work...

In recent years wireless sensors are becoming more widely used to monitor water distribution systems in the water supply industry. When sensors are installed in areas where electric power supply is lacking and/or battery replacement is difficult, harvesting renewable energy from the water distribution systems or the environment would be an attractive option. This work studies the feasibility of energy harvesting in water distribution systems from hydraulic energy in bypass water pipes, thermal energy in the water-air temperature gradient, and kinetic energy in the water pressure fluctuation. The energy harvesting systems are modeled and then analyzed by using simulated data and real data. The hydrothermal energy harvester and the water pressure fluctuation energy harvester introduced in this paper may be able to generate mW’s power.