Artificial intelligence-based monitoring system of water quality parameters for early detection of non-specific bio-contamination in water distribution systems

Abstract This research aims to simulate bio-contamination risk propagation under real-life conditions in the water distribution system (WDS) of Lille University's Scientific City Campus (France), solving the source identification and the response modeling. Neglecting dynamic reactions and not considering the possible chemical decay of most of the contaminants leads to an overestimation of the exposed population. Therefore, unlike the available event detection models, this study considers the interrelated change of several water-quality parameters such as free chlorine concentration, pH, alkalinity, and total organic carbon (TOC) resulting from the pollutants blending. In fact, starting from regular WDS monitoring, the baseline thresholds for each of the mentioned parameters are established; then, significant deviations from the baseline are used as indication for contaminations. For this reason, the purpose of the research was to develop and demonstrate the feasibility of an artificial intelligence (AI)-based smart monitoring system that will effectively enable water operators to ensure a quasi real-time quality control for early chemical and/or bio-contamination detection and preemptive risk management. Advanced pattern recognizers, such as Support Vector Machines (SVMs), and innovative sensing technology solutions, such as Artificial Neural Network (ANN), have been used for this purpose, identifying the anomalies and the severity-level assessment.