Rapid-to-Deploy Wireless Water Pressure Sensors for the Assessment of Water Distribution Systems

Drinking water systems require efficient operations to ensure high-quality water is delivered to customers with an adequate level of pressure. Municipalities adopt methods to analyze system operations to ensure they are meeting operational objectives. For example, pressure and flow sensors are commonly deployed but such sensors are spatially sparse in the distribution system. Hydraulic models are also employed to simulate the performance of drinking water systems, with operational sensor data used to refine the models for greater accuracy. However, there remains the need for a data collection method that can be easily deployed to collect measurements that densely map pressures across the drinking water system. This paper describes the design and validation of a low-cost, rapid-to-deploy wireless water pressure sensor designed to monitor water pressures in a municipal drinking water system. The sensors attached to a household hose spigot, register their GPS location, and communicate average measured pressures using a cellular modem. The system was validated using the water distribution system in Benton Harbor, Michigan to map areas suspected of low operational pressures. The study proved the ease and reliability of the monitoring system while providing reliable pressure data that was used to model the performance of the monitored system.