Large scale optimisation of the numbers and locations of meters and monitoring devices

South East Water has developed a vibration sensor device named Sotto to detect leaks within its network in order to reduce wastage. This research focuses on developing new optimisation algorithms to determine the optimum number and placement of Sotto sensors and other smart water network devices, minimising the overall cost of the sensors plus the cost of non-revenue water leaks. This cost optimisation problem crucially depends on the sensitivity of the Sotto devices and the leak distribution (or leak size) along the network. Hence, suitable statistical models will be integrated into the optimisation algorithms to solve the combined predict-and-optimise problem.