Leak detection in water distribution networks: an introductory overview

Samer El-Zahab,Tarek Zayed

doi:10.1186/s40713-019-0017-x

Abstract

Leaks in resource transmission pipelines is a growing concern for the water transmission industry. This creates a need to prevent the threat of leaks and minimize their damages through extensive research in leak detection technology. This research work provides a thorough investigation into the history of leak detection in pipelines by surveying the web of knowledge database and visualizing the outputs using visualization software VOSviewer and CiteNetExplorer. The analysis of the web of knowledge output presents a set of the ten most used keywords in the field of leak detection in pipelines that are further described and analyzed. Additionally, in-depth analysis of a randomly selected sample of papers was conducted to draw a sense of the progress in the industry over the past four decades. This article also defines a novel approach to define the leak detection phases, i.e., the identify-localize-pinpoint approach. Furthermore, two classes of leak detection systems are identified, static leak detection systems and dynamic leak detection systems. The two systems are defined as well as their differentiative capabilities. Finally, this article provides a summary of popular leak detection technologies to provide a broad sense of understanding for the leak detection field of research.

Highlights

Water transmission pipelines periodically lose an average of 20% to 30% of the water transmitted through them, and those numbers can escalate above 50% in old systems especially ones that have suffered from inefficient maintenance
Leak detection in pipelines is a growing research field and a growing industry that is driven by the criticalness of saving precious resources and preventing the fallout resulting from leaks
Leak detection used to be divided into three phases according to the Localize – Locate – Pinpoint (LLP) system, but this system is deemed ambiguous, and a new system is proposed, the Identify – Localize – Pinpoint (ILP) system

Summary

Introduction

Water is a critical source of life on our planet; it plays paramount roles in agriculture, manufacturing, production of electricity, and to keep humanity healthy. The most critical route for losses is a leak, as they are considered to contribute an estimated of 70% of water loss in water transmission systems, this value is expected to become higher in undermanaged networks (Van Zyl and Clayton 2007). The overall cost can be divided into two main portions, 1.5 billion £ (around 2 billion US$) indirect damage costs and 5.5 billion £ (around 8 billion US$) in social impact costs (Royal et al 2011). Another aspect of the dangers of leaks is their tendency to grow. The growth of leaks can allow the introduction of pathogens and contaminants from the surrounding environment into the network in the case of water networks and quite the opposite in the case of oil and gas networks which would result in dangerous impacts on human life (Alkasseh et al 2013)

Methods

Findings

Conclusion