Multiobjective contaminant sensor network design for water distribution systems

A contaminant intentional intrusion into a water distribution system is one of the most difficult threats to address. This is because of the uncertainty of the type of the injected contaminant and its consequences, and the uncertainty of the location and intrusion time. An online contaminant sensor network is the main constituent to enhance the security of a water distribution system against such a threat. In this study a multiobjective model for water distribution system optimal sensor placement using the nondominated sorted genetic algorithm II is developed and demonstrated using two water distribution systems of increasing complexity. Tradeoffs between three objectives are explored: (1) sensor detection likelihood; (2) sensor detection redundancy; and (3) sensor expected detection time. Pareto fronts are plotted for pairs of conflicting objectives, and simultaneously for all three. A contamination event heuristic sampling methodology is developed for overcoming the problem of contamination event sampling.