There is interest in optimally locating water quality sensors in a water distribution system due to possible terrorist injections of a contaminant. This paper is part of a contest for the 8th Water Distribution System Analysis Symposium entitled "Battle of the Water Sensor Networks" (BWSN), which asks contestants to propose sensor designs for two networks and two numbers of sensors. The method of sensor location selection described here is a demand-based approach in which sensors are located at the junctions with the highest demands. The rationale behind this method is that an injection of a contaminant will be advected by the flow, which goes toward the high-demand locations. Therefore, demand is a surrogate for contaminant concentration. In addition, the mass of contaminant released from the system is a function of demand. The 5-sensor and 20-sensor designs are presented in the paper. Designs were identical for all of the contamination scenarios contained in the contest, thereby demonstrating the simplicity and uniformity of the sensor location designs. This paper was presented at the 8th Annual Water Distribution Systems Analysis Symposium which was held with the generous support of Awwa Research Foundation (AwwaRF).
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Ghimire et al. (2008) studied this question.