Leakage detection in water distribution networks using space search reduction and local fitness in steady-state and EPS (case study: water distribution network of Birjand)

Using hydraulic model calibration of a water distribution network is one of the methods that can reduce leak detection costs by identifying areas with high leakage. In the present paper, a new factor called local fitness is used in combination with the search space reduction method to obtain an optimal answer. In this method, a fitness function is calculated for each zone. For each zone, proximity of the pressure and flow rates obtained from the model to the corresponding observational data indicates that the values selected for the nodes of that zone are close to the correct values. In the next steps, using a search space reduction method and performing the optimization process with the local fitness function, the chance of selecting those values is increased. In this study, leakage was assigned to nodes with emitter coefficient. This method was used on the water distribution network of Birjand. Three factors of background leakage, leakage hotspot and apparent losses were considered as unknown parameters. Results of the present method were compared with the results of a genetic algorithm (GA) and the corresponding exact values. Based the results, the present method showed better results in terms of convergence speed and accuracy.