In this article, we introduce the concept of Water Flow Driven Sensor Networks for leakage and contamination monitoring in urban water distribution systems. The unique aspect of our work is that the sensor network can be deployed in the underground water network with only access to connection points (through manholes) and driven only by water harvested energy without the need for AC power or frequent battery changes. Although water systems may be affected by a large variety of contaminants, only a few sensors can be practically deployed. Thus, many types of contaminants are sensed via “proxy sensing,” which may not be 100% reliable. The main problems addressed are (a) adaptation of the network to the available energy to maximize leak/contamination detection and (b) minimal artificial water circulation or leakage to improve detectability during periods of almost zero natural water flow. The article shows, through extensive simulations, that the proposed approach can drastically reduce the leakage/contamination reporting time (from 3.5h up to ∼6min), and the adaptation can reduce this circulation by ∼33% and yet enhance the collected/transmitted data by 30%.

中文翻译：

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用于配电管道泄漏和污染监测的水流驱动传感器网络

在本文中，我们介绍了水流驱动传感器网络的概念，用于城市供水系统中的泄漏和污染监测。我们工作的独特之处在于，传感器网络可以部署在地下水网络中，只需访问连接点（通过检修孔），并且仅由水收集的能量驱动，无需交流电源或频繁更换电池。尽管水系统可能会受到多种污染物的影响，但实际上只能部署少数传感器。因此，许多类型的污染物是通过“代理传感”来传感的，这可能不是 100% 可靠的。解决的主要问题是 (a) 使网络适应可用能量以最大限度地检测泄漏/污染和 (b) 最小化人工水循环或泄漏以提高在几乎为零的自然水流量期间的可检测性。文章通过大量模拟表明，所提出的方法可以显着减少泄漏/污染报告时间（从 3.5 小时到 ∼6 分钟），并且适应可以将这种循环减少 ∼33%，同时增强收集/传输的数据30%。