Sensor placement for classifier-based leak localization in water distribution networks using hybrid feature selection

- A sensor placement for leak localization using classifiers in water networks is proposed.
- The method is based on a hybrid feature selection approach.
- This hybrid method combines the use of filters and genetic algorithms.
- The obtained sensor placement optimizes the leak localization using classifiers.
- The method is successfully applied to two water distribution networks.

This paper presents a sensor placement approach for classifier-based leak localization in water distribution networks. The proposed method is based on a hybrid feature selection algorithm that combines the use of a filter based on relevancy and redundancy with a wrapper based on genetic algorithms. This algorithm is applied to data generated by hydraulic simulation of the considered water distribution network and it determines the optimal location of a prespecified number of pressure sensors to be used by a leak localization method based on pressure models and classifiers proposed in previous works by the authors. The method is applied to a small-size simplified network (Hanoi) to better analyze its computational performance and to a medium-size network (Limassol) to demonstrate its applicability to larger real-size networks.