Master 2 · Telecommunications · prototype

Find the leak before anyone calls.

A town cut into metered districts. One LoRa sensor per district watches the night flow. When a district leaks, pressure narrows it to a segment and two acoustic loggers pin it to the metre. Repair crews go to the leak, not the complaint.

ADE · Unité de Saïda · Réseau AEP · Saïda
38 sensors onlineLoRaWAN · EU868Tue 22:00

Water into network

— m³/hreservoir outlet

Billed consumption

— m³/hrolling 24 h

Estimated loss

non-revenue water

Districts with anomaly

0 / 6night-flow test

Recovered this month

0 m³leaks located by HYDRA
Saïda · 130,000 residents6 districtsstanding by
DMA-01 · Centre-villeDMA-02 · Route d’Oran DMA-03 · BoukhorsDMA-04 · Cité Riadh DMA-05 · Sidi AïssaDMA-06 · zone industrielle Aïn El Hadjar RÉSERVOIR LoRa gateway P-B P-C P-D 3.9 bar 2.6 bar 3.8 bar A B LEAK · rue des Frères Boukhalfa, nº 14≈ 790 m³/day · DN100 cast iron ADE crew · ETA 25 min

Logger A · 3.1 kHz band

Logger B · 3.1 kHz band

Cross-correlation

from logger A · Δt = 18.4 ms · v = 1,180 m/s (cast iron DN100)

DMA-04 · inlet flow, last 24 h

last weektoday
060120m³/h 22h02h06h12h18h22h MNF 28 MNF 61 ▲

Night-flow test · 02:00–04:00

pending
DistrictMNF m³/hBaselineΔ
DMA-0122
DMA-0231
DMA-0314
DMA-0428
DMA-0519
DMA-0640

Event log

    Watch one night on the network

    Six districts, one leak somewhere. The system finds it, narrows it, pins it, and sends the crew — before a single call.

    How it is built

    Sensing · one node per district

    Electromagnetic flow meter with pulse output + pressure transducer on an ESP32/LoRa node, IP68, in the existing valve chamber. Sends every 15 min, every minute during the night test. Battery ≥ 5 years.

    • 38 nodes for a town of 130,000
    • Not 30,000 smart meters

    Localising · pressure then sound

    Three pressure points per district turn a district-wide alarm into one segment. Two acoustic loggers on that segment listen at 02:00; the delay between them gives the distance along the pipe.

    • Cross-correlation, ±3 m on metal
    • Loggers moved by the crew, not permanent

    Network · LoRaWAN on ADE's own towers

    Gateways on water towers and reservoirs — ADE already owns the high points. The thesis measures path loss from underground chambers, picks spreading factors, and models coverage for a whole wilaya.

    • EU868, ChirpStack, no operator fees
    • 4G backhaul from the gateway

    What it costs

    Thesis prototype — 1 district3 flow/pressure nodes, 2 acoustic loggers, 1 gateway, Raspberry Pi, EPANET model of the town€700
    One town — Saïda, 6 districts38 nodes, 3 gateways, 6 acoustic loggers, server, 1 year of 4G backhaul€21,000
    Whole wilaya — 16 communes~120 districts, ~18 gateways on ADE reservoirs, ops screen at the ADE unit€80,000
    vs. water lost in Saïda today at 35 %≈ 4.5 million m³ / year · water from the Chott Chergui aquifer and dams costs ADE ~€0.3/m³ to pump and treat≈ €1.3 M / year

    The number that matters

    Algeria loses roughly a third of its drinking water in the pipes: the ministry reported 35 % nationally in 2019, with some wilayas near 60 %, and the national target is 18–20 % by 2030. SEAAL fixed 24,000 leaks by hand in 2024 and recovered only 8 days of consumption.

    1 town system ≈ 1 % of its annual loss

    Payback in weeks. Every leak found at 02:00 is a leak nobody had to report.

    © Toufik Zeraguet · toufikzeraguet@wavedz.com