Water distribution network leak detection management

Abstract

Water is becoming an increasingly scarce commodity and must be effectively managed to ensure minimal losses. Water is a basic human resource and during both a physical and a cyber war, limiting, or interrupting the supply can have a devastating effect on a country and its population. It is proposed to have an integrated systems approach to determine losses through leaks within a water distribution system by using monitoring equipment combined with occupancy data. The integrated system allows both the detection of cyber attacks, as well as, a potential reduction in losses by performing early leak detection. This paper covers an overview of current water distribution networks and explores the current cyber threat landscape. Furthermore, this paper also proposes a design for an anomaly leak detection system on an open-ended water distribution network. Having such a system in place can potentially mitigate the disastrous effect of a cyber attack on an organisation's water distribution network by acting as an alert trigger. This alert trigger can also serve as an input to existing security information and event management system.