In this paper, leak detection and localization in water distribution networks will be reviewed. In particular, the paper presents the evolution of the methods from model-based towards data-based approaches, listing, describing and comparing the main and/or most recent methods of both categories. Besides, the practical applicability in real water utilities of different existing methods is discussed, outlining the advantages and limitations of model-based and data-driven methods for this task. A well-known case study is used to compare some of the more promising methods and illustrate their performances. Perspectives of the future evolution of the current existing methods are also provided.

The authors want to thank the Spanish national project L-BEST (Ref. PID2020-115905RB-C21).

Peer reviewed