Enhancing the Reliability and Security of Urban Water Infrastructures through Intelligent Monitoring, Assessment, and Optimization

Urban water infrastructure systems are large, complex network systems. In delivering water to end consumers they are required to meet increasingly stringent water quality standards as well as minimum flow and pressure criteria. At the same time, water utilities are expected to become more effective and to demonstrate sustainability in both operation and profit. Water supply companies are facing growing costs related to the energy needed to meet increasing demand for water, due to leakage and water loss caused by the aging and failure of infrastructure and also due to climate changes, increased population density, etc. They also have to deal with increasing uncertainty from a range of threats including natural hazards and humancaused threats, such as climate changes and biochemical contamination. This chapter will investigate intelligent monitoring, assessment and optimization techniques that can be applied in urban water infrastructures to improve the spatial and temporal resolution of operational data from water distribution networks and address the challenge of real-time monitoring and control in large-scale complex distributed environments. We will explore techniques that can comprehensively monitor a complex, highly dynamic environment and enhance the reliability and security of urban water infrastructures through intelligent monitoring, assessment and optimization.