Model Calibration as a Tool for Leakage Identification in WDS: A Real Case Study

Water leakage detection is important for a proper management of water distribution systems (WDS). This paper proposes the application of the leak detection approach based on a new Bayesian calibration methodology. The methodology uses a new developed index μ, which takes into account the difference in roughness values in pipes of the calibrated models with and without leaks. The case study is referred to a real network and is presented to demonstrate how the approach can be used in identifying pipes with losses. The approach starts with the UNINET calibration method followed by the analysis of sensitivity matrices. The case study proves that the approach is effective in finding leaks in real networks, but the results depend on the quality of the observed data.