Safeguarding Municipal Water Systems

Researchers from Sandia National Laboratories are working with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop contaminant warning systems that can monitor municipal water systems to determine quickly when and where a contamination occurs. Sensors and software form the heart of the system. "Through careful adaptation of classical algorithms, we are able to solve sensor placement problems on networks that are 100 times larger than those previously cited in the water security literature," says Jon Berry, who works on sensor placement methods for the project. "Our team recognized and exploited mathematical structure that hadn't been associated with water security before."