• Journal of Korea Water Resources Association
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• v.42 no.7
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• pp.537-546
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• 2009

Determination of optimal pressure monitoring location is essential to manage water distribution system efficiently and safely. In this study, entropy theory is applied to overcome defects of previous researches about determining the optimal sensor location. The previous studies required the calibration using historical data, therefore, it was difficult to apply the proposed method in the place where the enough data were not available. Also, most researches have focused on the locations to minimize cost and maximize accuracy of the model, which is not appropriate for the purpose of maintenance of the water distribution system. The proposed method in this study quantify the entropy which is defined as the amount of information calculated from the pressure change due to the variation of discharge. When abnormal condition is occurred in a node, the effect on the entire network is presented by the entropy, and the emitter is used to reproduce actual pressure change pattern in EPANET. The optimal location to install pressure sensors in water distribution system is the nodes having the maximum information from other nodes. The looped and branched networks are evaluated using the proposed model. As a result, entropy theory provides general guideline to select the locations to install pressure sensors and the results can be used to help decision makers.