Modified NSGA-III for sensor placement in water distribution system

Contaminant events in drinkable water distribution systems (WDSs) have occurred frequently in recent years, causing severe damages, economic loss, and long-lasting societal impact. A critical and effective method to monitor WDS in real-time is deploying a water quality sensor. However, the placement of such sensors in a water distribution network (WDN) has become a foremost concern around the world. In this paper, we first analyze sensor placement mathematically and prove that it is NP-hard. Subsequently, we distinguish between single- and multi-objective optimization, and attempt, for the first time, to propose a modified NSGA-III to solve many-objective optimization for the sensor placement problem. WDNs of two sizes are employed and simulation results demonstrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed model and methodology. The future research works are also identified and discussed. (C) 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.