A critical review of sensor location methods for contamination detection in water distribution networks

Water distribution networks (WDNs) are vulnerable to various types of contamination events that may have impacts on human health and the environment. Therefore, there is a growing need to design an effective monitoring system. Due to the cost of both placing and maintaining the sensors, their numbers must be limited. This constraint makes the sensor deployment locations crucial in water monitoring systems. Several methodologies have been suggested in the past two decades by different researchers for placement of sensors in WDNs. These methodologies differ in many ways depending on the number of objectives, solution methodology, concentration level of contaminant considered, type of simulation, and so on. In this paper, various methodologies have been broadly classified based on the number of performance objectives as single and multi-objective sensor location problems. Some of the features of these methodologies are also mentioned to help understand the advantages of a particular method over other methods. A critical review of literature is presented. Some of the issues on which a consensus is being developed amongst researchers are discussed and recommendations are made with a view to suggest future research needs for sensor network design of large WDNs.