An Investigation on the Effect of Leakages on the Water Quality Parameters in Distribution Networks

Leakages in distribution networks reach more than 30% of the water supplied, entailing important risks for the water infrastructure with water contamination issues. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new methods to mitigate the amount of water wastes. This study proposes to seek new sources of information that can help for a more sustainable water use. Hence, an analysis of the network is presented, showing the hydraulic behavior during leaks occurrence, placing emphasis on how these events affect and modify water quality parameters, such as water age and chlorine concentration. The study enhances that water quality data can be an effective source of information in the case of leaks, being a possible source of information for future detection systems. In addition, this study proposes to use graph theory on the water network. The results highlight how an analysis of the shortest path between the leak location and the reservoir could provide meaningful information for future detection systems.