INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMPUTERS COMMUNICATIONS & CONTROL
Online ISSN 1841-9844, ISSN-L 1841-9836, Volume: 15, Issue: 6, Month: December, Year: 2020
Article Number: 3977, https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977

CCC Publications 

Water Demand Forecasting using Deep Learning in IoT Enabled
Water Distribution Network

L.K. Narayanan, S. Sankaranarayanan, J.J.P.C. Rodrigues, S. Kozlov

Lakshmi Kanthan Narayanan
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
Chennai Institute of Technology
Chennai, India
lakshmikanth.vlsi@gmail.com

Suresh Sankaranarayanan*
SRM Institute of Science and Technology
Chennai, India
*Corresponding author: sureshs3@srmist.edu.in

Joel J. P. C. Rodrigues
1 Federal University of Piauí (UFPI), Teresina – PI, Brazil
2 Instituto de Telecomunicações, Portugal.
3 ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia

Sergei Kozlov
ITMO University, St. Petersburg, Russia

Abstract

Most of the water losses occur during water distribution in pipelines during transportation. In
order to eradicate the losses, an “IoT based water distribution system” integrated with “Fog and
Cloud Computing" proposed for water distribution and underground health monitoring of pipes.
For developing an effective water distribution system based on Internet of Things (IoT), the demand
of the consumer should be analysed. So, towards predicting the water demand for consumers, Deep
learning methodology called Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is compared with traditional Time
Series methodology called Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) in terms of error
and accuracy. Now based on demand prediction with higher accuracy, an IoT integrated “Water
Distribution Network (WDN)” is designed using hydraulic engineering. This WDN design will
ensure minimal losses during transportation and quality of water to the consumers. This will lead
to development of a smart system for water distribution.

Keywords: Internet of Things, Recurrent Neural Network, Long Short-Term Memory, Auto
Regressive Integrated Moving Average, Water Distribution Network.



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 2

1 Introduction
In the present era, people are facing many health hazards due to accessing unsafe water. A report

of World Health Organization (WHO) states that the imbalance in the quantity and quality of water
leads to the downtime of human activities. It is the need of the hour to construct a safe water
distribution and management system in order to save our future generations. The major reason for
the water quality issues are because of breakdown or crack in pipes, poor monitoring and demand
forecast system, loss in quantity of distribution due to water theft and leakages. Also, the current
water distribution system that is in practice in India is the traditional system which has not changed
over more than 100+ years. Figure 1 illustrates the traditional water distribution system. Figure 2
shows a typical “Water Sub-Distribution” system which describes how water is distributed to all the
consumer nodes.

Figure 1: Water Distribution System

Figure 2: Water Sub distribution system

There are two types of Water Distribution Network (WDN) based on the location of pipes laid
which are Above Ground Water Distribution Network (AGWDN) and Underground Water Distribu-
tion Network (UGWDN)[3]. In water distribution systems, the supervisory control and automation is
not in practice throughout the network. All the process are completely automated only at the water
treatment unit using SCADA and not done yet especially in the distribution part of the network[5].
In the traditional water distribution system, there is no part for the demand forecast analysis. For
the determination of rate of flow in the pipe network, Fuzzy based method is used in the traditional
system[4]. It is hard to deploy the sensors under the surface of ground which plays a vital role in
making decision for operational control by the engineer. So with advent of IoT [22], we can make
this into reality. In order to take real time decision based on data communicated by the underground
sensor, Fog/Edge computing introduced by CISCO been integrated with IoT. The computation delay,
latency and bandwidth are reduced to a great extent by the evolution of Fog computing which is
an extension of cloud computing in IoT[8, 29]. So accordingly, an “IoT” integrated with “Fog and
Cloud Computing” for underground “Water Distribution Management” and pipe health monitoring
proposed where all the real time processing happen at the edge level called fog computing. All the
data is captured from various sensors that are deployed internally and externally over the surface of
pipe with laminated protection under the surface of ground. For storing the processed and unpro-
cessed data for future operations like billing, Consumption analysis etc., Cloud computing employed
which is a part of the system[17]. For developing such an IoT based system for the water distribution
management, the first and foremost step is identifying the consumption pattern and behavior of con-



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 3

sumer through the detailed analytical study of historical data. There are various realistic models that
are used for demand forecasting like “SVM, Regression, ANN, ARIMA” which has produced proven
results as available from literature[10, 13, 18]. The current trend is more towards Deep Learning which
uses various numbers of interconnected different layers present in the neural network. Deep learning
ensures neural network to learn from a large volume of data and complex algorithms are used to train
the neural net. Figure 3 shows the design layer of the neural network system.

Figure 3: A Neural Network Label

So, the proposed work aims at designing an efficient water distribution system based on demand
forecast for smart city with minimal transportation losses. So, towards this, historical “water con-
sumption” data is used for studying the consumer behaviour. So accordingly, the water demand
predictions were made for a daily consumption over 3-month period as a case study using “LSTM and
ARIMA” in terms of error and accuracy. The major contribution of the paper are as follows.
•Prediction of Daily Consumption water demand using “Deep learning” method called “LSTM”.
•Prediction of Daily Consumption Water Demand using “ARIMA”.
•Comparative analysis of LSTM Versus ARIMA based Demand Forecasting.
•Design and analysis of “Water Distribution Network” based on “LSTM” based forecast using EPANET
for 24 hr period.
The rest of the sections in this paper organised as follows. Section 2 discusses about the various
technologies adopted in construction of water distribution system and also about various methods
for demand forecasting. Section 3 discusses on Water distribution architecture for IoT followed by
the operation of water distribution system and Water Demand forecasting using “LSTM” which is a
variant of “Recurrent Neural Network”. Section 4 talks on the Results and Discussion which compares
the water demand forecasting using “LSTM” with traditional “Time Series Analysis” method called
“ARIMA” in terms of error and accuracy. Also based on demand forecasting using LSTM, water
distribution design carried out using EPANET. Section 5 is the concluding and future work section
which gives the concluding remarks of the research with future direction of research.

2 Literature Review
Many researches are made on designing an “IoT Water Distribution System” using sensors in order

to monitor the supply and quality of water. This “WDS” will display the real time water consumed by
the customers[6]. In terms of SCADA for water distribution, data is collected from various “sensors”
deployed in the network from remote locations and correspondingly processes the data[7, 28]. Re-
search been done towards identifying the quality of water by employing Randomized Pollution Matrix
and Maximum Column Coverage methodologies[23]. Researchers have developed a system employing
microphone and acoustic signature for sensing the water flow and actively controlling the water flow.
In addition, determination of fault or leak in the pipeline analyzed too[19]. Now towards “Water Dis-
tribution Automation”, Solution is provided towards “fault-diagnosis, fault-detection, flow-pressure
variation regulation and control, isolation and restoration” of pipes in the network, enhancing and im-
proving the efficiency and performance of the “water distribution system”. For towards development
of smart sensors, “Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS)” has played a very important role[1].
For covering up large distance between placement location of water tanks, “Ultrasonic sensors and
sub-GHz based systems” are developed. For controlling the operation of “water distribution system”,
“Smart valves” are introduced[24]. Research carried out towards the development of contamination
warning system (CWS) for “drinking water distribution systems”. For detection of contaminants
rapidly, placement of sensors is the critical aspect in the design of “CWS”[14]. Research been done



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 4

towards measuring the hydrogen ion concentration present in the water flow through the pipe by
deploying pH sensors. This is helpful in assuring the quality of water that is supplied to customer[11].
Research also been done by measuring conductivity in water by employing conductivity sensor for wa-
ter quality. This sensor allows you to measure water conductivity which is included in Open Garden
Hydrophonics[15]. “Internet of Things” refers to networking the devices towards sensing and collecting
the data from the environment and sharing the data across different devices towards processing for
various purposes[16]. Researcher have employed IoT towards the leakage detection in the pipe which is
based on the “drip-out” happening outside the surface of the pipe. “Moisture Sensors” are deployed at
the top and bottom surface of the pipe outside[27]. For effective water management, “Electromagnetic
wave” communication happen between “underground” and “aboveground” sensors. The communica-
tion range is “2.4GHz frequency” and “operating range is 73 meters to 100 meters[? ]. Research been
done towards proposing an IoT based reference architecture called the Integrated Water Resource
Management which specially focuses on the water management. It is a unified architecture for linking
and embedding process control mechanism. Research has been done in connecting the intermediate
gateway to the control system to the internet. The Web based application is used as a gateway to
communicate to the internet. A system for servicing the city piped network intelligently using IoT is
developed using dynamic simulation model, which is used to monitor the drainage pipes underground.
Geographical Information System is used as spatial management system[20]. For monitoring the wa-
ter supply and controlling the water theft, novel and innovation system developed. “ADAFRUIT”
server used for simulation of the system[25]. Researchers have developed a system for collecting the
data sources and the data analysis carried out. The consumption of data is done online through data
visualization[2]. It has been seen so far that good amount of work done by employing IoT for water
distribution, water flow, water quality and Water theft. Now in terms of water demand prediction,
research been done by employing “machine learning” which are discussed below. A system to predict
the water demand for a region is done using “Artificial Neural Network (ANN)”. The forecast data
of “Laminga water treatment plant and distribution network” is taken into consideration for 60 days.
The supervisory control is designed to control the login security through user name and password pro-
tection, interfacing the demand node for the activation / deactivation of pumps and also interfacing the
activation/deactivation of valves[13]. Research done towards a deterministic model for the prediction
of water demand in the Austin household area is taken into considerations. The consumption pattern
is correlated with the number of persons in the household. “Kohenen self-organization maps” are used
for clustering. The graphical analysis of consumption is made in 7*7 formats. The application of Time
Series Analysis in data analytics has made many improvements in terms of accuracy of the predic-
tion made. The water distribution of Milan city is validated over the demand forecasted and actual
consumption through a test bed setup. SVM is the method used for performing this analysis[13]. On
top of SCADA system, an Artificial Neural Network -ANN is deployed. This system is implemented
on the basis of case study done in Nigeria. Solution is provided towards remote monitoring of hydrol-
ogy parameters and drawing a feasible solution towards scarcity of water in the Water Distribution
Network[10]. Adaptive Seasonal Regression model and auto regressive model with fixed seasonality
is used for short term water demand prediction. This analysis was carried out by using a statistical
forecasting method based on the data obtained from prototype test bed. This resulted in derivation of
a framework called Time Series Forecasting Framework(TSFF)[9]. A decision-making model is derived
as a result of analysis carried out on case study of demand forecasting of water consumed by people of
residential buildings in Korea. Demand forecasting is made by Back Propagation Neural Network with
considerations of climate, seasonality components and geometrical values. Two years consumption of
residents from 2012 to 2014 is used as training input[26]. From the data analytics employed in water
demand prediction, it has been concluded that good amount of research done by employing machine
learning algorithms like ANN, SVM, BPNN and Regression. None of the system has employed Deep
learning for water demand prediction. In addition, none of these water demand predictions been
integrated into IoT based water distribution system towards water distribution design. None of the
system is implemented using short term distribution like daily water demand forecast integrated with
water distribution design with minimal loss of water and meeting the demand of consumers. The
forthcoming session will discuss about integration of Fog and Cloud computing with IoT based Water



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 5

Distributed System architecture design in detail.

3 Water Distribution Architecture using IoT
There are different types of systems that are in practice for demand forecasting, Quantity Mea-

surement, automation of distribution etc. All these systems are standalone applications. "IoT based
Water Distribution architecture” integrated with “Fog and Cloud Computing” been proposed [17, 21]
based on the above-mentioned points. Figure 4 illustrates an “IoT” based architecture for “Water
Distribution and Underground Pipe Health Monitoring System”.

Figure 4: An IoT based Water Distribution Architecture[17]

3.1 Operation of Water Distribution System

The design of the “Water Distribution System" is based on the prediction of consumer demand. The
water distribution forecasting is done based on historical water consumption data. The water supply
in the network will be initiated by the “SCADA” engineer on the basis of forecast made. This forecast
based distribution enables the SCADA engineer to look for alternate source if the required quantity is
not available. The hydraulic parameters like “flow, pressure, velocity and also quality” is monitored
through the various sensors positioned at pre-defined intervals in and around the pipe. For keeping
track of pipe health, quality of water flow and hydraulic parameters like the flow, pressure inside the
pipe need to be monitored. Different methodologies pertaining to “Water Demand prediction” need to
be looked into based on historical water consumption data for predicting the water demand towards
water distribution design. These are discussed below

3.2 Water Demand Forecasting

This section will discuss in detail about the prediction of water demand towards effective im-
plementation of WDS design. The water demand forecasting is done by using “Long Short-Term
Memory (LSTM)” which is a variant of “Recurrent Neural Network” under “Deep Learning”. The de-
mand forecast analysis using “LSTM” is compared with the traditional “Time Series Analysis” called
“Auto Regression Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA)” in terms of error and accuracy. Towards
the demand forecasting and analysis, the day-wise water consumption data of the residents of Austin
City-Texas, USA is considered. The dataset consists of water meter readings of various types of con-
sumers like residents, industrial and public etc. The dataset also consists of maximum consumption
data labeled as Peak 1 and Peak 2 along with total consumption of the day. The dataset details are
furnished in public domain of US Web [30]. It contains consumption data for 8 years and 3 months
from Jan-01-2010 till March-31-2018.The following figure illustrates the consumption of Austin city
over the period of Jan 2010 to March 2018.

3.2.1 Recurrent Neural Network

Before getting into the details of LSTM which is a variant of RNN for time series forecasting,
details about Recurrent Neural Network been discussed. There are many difficulties that arise in
handling sequential inputs, memorizing previous outputs etc. in the traditional neural network. So,
with the upcoming of Deep learning, RNN is developed. RNN is smart enough to handle sequential



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 6

Figure 5: Water consumption of Austin from January 2010 to March 2018

data, keep track of current input and previous inputs and also keeps track of previous inputs due to
the in built provision of memory. Figure 6 illustrate the basic RNN model.

Figure 6: RNN Processing States

Where ht is the output of the network after processing, Xt is the input states. Data at the previous
states is denoted by successor -1 and future state is denoted with a successor of +1. Figure 7 illustrates
layered architectural representation of RNN. In RNN, there are three layers namely input, output and
hidden layers respectively. Here h is the new state formed after performing a geometrical operation
called tan (h). In order to determine the outcome of hidden layer (h(t)) parameter, the following
equation is used.

h(t) = Sh(WhXt + Uhht−1 + Bh)
Y (t) = SY (WY ht + BY )

Here “Xt” is input vector, ht is input layered vector, “Yt“ is output vector. “W,U and B” are
metrics and vector, Sh is activation function within the hidden layer which can be TANH or RELU.
The output activation function SY is either sigmoid or Softmax or linear. RNN vanishes the gradient
problem that occurred in the neural network model by exploding gradients through Back propagation
and the gradients are vanished by using Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) networks.

3.2.2 LSTM Networks

LSTM is a special type of RNN which learns the long term dependencies at a rapid pace.It has
a unique feature incorporated in it viz. keeping track of information over a longer duration of time.
The RNN network is formed by repeated chains of neural network. The structural formation of these
modules is very simple in structural construction. It is built with only one tan(h) layer. LSTM follows
a very special way to interact between the four different layers present in the structure. Figure 7 shows
the different layers in LSTM.

Figure 7: LSTM Computation Layer



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 7

3.2.3 Working of LSTM*

Step 1: Decision over the size of remembrance of the past data The primary step in LSTM is
eliminating the irrelevant data from the input cell during the specific time step. This is performed
by function shown in the above figure called sigmoid (S).This sigmoid layer will act as an input gate
which helps in making the decision of which contents of the memory cell to be processed forward.

ft = S(Wf .[ht−1, Xt] + bf )

Where ft is forget gate, which decides on which information to be left out from the previous state
of time, ht-1 is the previous state and Xt is the current input.

Step 2. Selective Cell Update Values After the decision made on the size of memory of previous
state, the comparison is made between the current input Xt and previous output ht-1. It helps the
LSTM to determine how much of the past unit is needed to be included with the present input. A
vector of new candidate value Ct’ is created by tanh layer in order to write to the memory cell. The
following equation is used for this selection.

it = S(Wf .[ht−1, Xt] + bf )
Ct = tanh(Wc.[ht−1, Xt] + bc)
Ct = ft ∗ Ct−1 + it ∗ C′t

Here it is input gate which helps in deciding which of the information can be passed forward on
the basis of present time step.

Step 3: Decides which part of the present state can be proceeded to output state This state helps
in setting up the output. Sigmoid layer is executed formerly to determine which are the components
of the cells through to the output. Then tanh function is applied over the cell state in order to limit
the values between -1 and 1. Finally this outcome is multiplied with the sigmoid gate output.The
sigmoid layer decides which part of the memory is to be written to the output gate.

ot = S(Wo.[ht−1, Xt] + bo)
ht = ot ∗ tanh(ct)

Here ot is the output gate, which creates an impact on the output gate by the passed information
in the present time step. Here for the water distribution forecast analysis, the model is trained with
43000 input sequence of daily consumption from Jan 2010 till March 2017 which is the training data
set. The model is designed with these inputs for performing long time prediction. The secondary
model is built with automated test set training from the pre-trained model in order to perform short
term prediction based on nearly six-month data as validation data set. The range of feedback delay
is set within a range of 1 to 5 which is based on the number of neurons in each hidden layer, the
maximum range can be between 1 to 40. The number of hidden layers is set with a range of 1 to 3 for
training functions. This is set with reference to Bayesian Regularization and Levenberg Marquardt.
The initial learning rate of the system is obtained as 0.0009 using solver called Adam Optimizer. This
is shown in Figure 8. Here the data set consist of vectors like date, consumption in Million Gallons,
peak-1 consumption and peak-2 consumption. The entire data is fed as input through the input layer.
The forget gate is programmed to forget the null values and also the peak-1, peak-2 values in order to
feed the consumption of water to predict the future demand. The output gate will have the vectors
called date and predicted quantity of water in Million Gallons.



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Figure 8: Summary of data trained with LSTM Model

4 Results and Discussion
Based on the LSTM and ARIMA applied for water consumption demand prediction over the data

set of water consumption of Austin city, this section will briefly discuss on the forecast analysis result in
terms of accuracy of forecast and percentage of error in prediction. Based on this forecast analysis, an
IoT based distribution network design construction is discussed in the following section. The algebraic
expression which plays a vital role in determining effectiveness of the prediction model in terms of
efficiency is described below.

et = Ot − Ft

Here et is the calculated error, Qt is actual amount of water consumed and Ft is the predicted
demand.

M eanError[M E] =
1
n

∑
i=1n

et

M eanAbsoleteError[M AE] =
1
n

∑
i=1n
|et|

The percentage of error is calculated as follows

P E =
Ot − Ft

Ot
∗ 100

Here PE is Error in percentage. The following figure shows the LSTM model trained with the data
set.Comparative analysis of prediction vs. consumption of water is done and the results are discussed
below.

Figure 9 and 10 shows the LSTM and ARIMA forecast versus consumption for 2018. Table-1 and 2
shows the prediction for 3 months in 2018 for LSTM and ARIMA. Table-3 represent the computation
of errors and accuracy that are found during forecast analysis using recurrent neural based LSTM
and statistical based ARIMA models. From the table it is evident that the accuracy of LSTM model
is nearly 12 percent higher when compared with ARIMA. From the table it is also proven that in
spite of the prediction, the consumption is higher over a greater period of time. We cannot claim that
the entire volume is properly consumed by the consumers. The consumption data includes volume of
water lost during transportation and water theft occurred etc. It is necessary to minimize the losses



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 9

Figure 9: LSTM Forecast vs Consumption for 2018 Season 1

Figure 10: ARIMA Forecast vs Consumption for 2018 Season 1

Table 1: Prediction for 3 months using LSTM

Date (O) 2018 (F) 2018 Act- (O-F)/O Mod(2018 Percentage Actual 2018 Sq.
Consumed -ual Predicted =Error Error) Error Error Error

1 Jan 13953.60 14853.76 0.06 0.06 6.45 -900.16 810279.82
2 Jan 13861.20 14168.71 0.02 0.02 2.22 -307.51 94565.27
3 Jan 15435.60 14396.96 -0.07 0.93 93.27 1038.64 1078780.87

- - - - - - - -
29 Mar 14768.40 14043.00 -0.05 0.95 95.09 725.40 526203.74
30 Mar 13683.60 14043.00 0.03 0.03 2.63 -359.40 129170.47
31 Mar 13683.60 14043.00 0.04 0.04 4.41 -593.40 352128.20

TOTAL 40.41% 3689248.26

Table 2: Prediction for 3 months using ARIMA

Date (O) 2018 (F) 2018 Act- (O-F)/O Mod(2018 Percentage Actual 2018 Sq.
Consumed -ual Predicted =Error Error) Error Error Error

1 Jan 13953.60 13172.44 -0.06 0.94 94.40 781.16 610205.31
2 Jan 13861.20 13513.51 -0.03 0.97 97.49 347.69 120891.50
3 Jan 15435.60 13604.39 -0.12 0.88 88.14 1831.21 3353314.18

- - - - - - - -
29 Mar 14768.40 13888.32 -0.06 0.94 94.04 880.08 774542.09
30 Mar 13683.60 14186.21 0.04 0.04 3.67 -502.61 252616.78
31 Mar 13683.60 13941.76 0.04 4.41 -492.16 242222.18

TOTAL 52.45% 97274284.40

since fresh water availability has started diminishing. In order to overcome this flaws need a WDN
with smartness.

The graphical representation of error and prediction accuracy is illustrated in the figure 11 and
figure 12 respectively.



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Table 3: Comparison of accuracy betweeen LSTM and ARIMA
LSTM ARIMA

MAPE 40.41 52.45
Accuaracy 59.59 47.55
MASE 3.6x10^5 9.7x10^6

M eanAbsoluteP ercentageErrorM AP E =
1
n

∑
i−1n

M od[P E]

Accuracy= 100 - MAPE

The accuracy is derived by reducing the percentage of error from hundred. The accuracy obtained
using LSTM model is better than that of forecast analysis done by ARIMA. The accuracy of the LSTM
is obtained nearly 60 percentage whereas ARIMA is only 48 percentage on validating the entire data
set.

Figure 11: MAPE Comparison between ARIMA and LSTM

Figure 12: Comparative analysis of percentage error and accuracy

4.1 Water Distribution Design Using EPANET

On the basis of the demand forecast done using LSTM model for the first quarter of the year 2019,
the distribution network is designed on the basis of following assumptions as shown in Table 4.

Table 4: Assumptions for Water Distribution Design
S.No Name of the Parameter Description
1 No. of distribution points 50
2 Material of pipe PVC
3 No. of junctions 26
4 Diameter of pipe 100mm
5 Length b/w each junction 500m
6 Roughness co.efficient 140
7 Calculation Method Hazen Williams formula

The predicted data of Jan 17, 2019 is taken into simulation for the pipe network design. The total
quantity of water predicted is taken as an average for 24 Hrs. The EPANET design is constructed
with an assumption of 50 Distribution Mains supplied by one main reservoir.
• The maximum and average demand of Jan 2019 is computed as 14391 Million Gallons based on



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 11

prediction done for Jan 17 2019 – 14535 MG is the Max requirements as per the prediction analysis
done over a period of 3 months (Jan 2019 to March 2019).
• The prediction is assumed for one postal zone and it is assumed that 50 sub-tanks supply the entire
zone and 25 No.s of Junctions are used to connect all of them.
• The length of the PVC connects the upper zone is assumed as 1000m and the tanks in bottom zone
is 500m in length.

Table 5: Hourly Water Supply on 17th Jan 2019
EPANET supply 17th Jan 2019(in Hrs) Supply (MG) Multiplier Factor

0 400 0.2
1 500 0.06
2 500 0.02
3 540 0.03
4 695 0.06
5 1000 0.13
6 1200 0.9
7 1500 1.68
8 1700 1.35
9 1400 1.35
10 400 0.67
11 400 0.56
12 300 1
13 250 2.56
14 250 3.56
15 250 2.81
16 250 1.24
17 400 0.75
18 500 0.9
19 500 1.75
20 400 1.25
21 400 1.25
22 400 0.34
23 400 0.34

Total 14535

The forecast analysis of water demand for the year 2019 is illustrated in the Figure 13.
The construction of water distribution network based on the forecast analysis using LSTM is

illustrated in the figures 14 to 16.
Figure 14 to 16 show the simulation of water distribution system using EPANET based on LSTM

forecast. This simulation helps to determine the hydraulic parameters such as flow, pressure, velocity
etc. throughout the WDN. The EPANET design in Figure 14 shows WDN design. Figures 15 and 16
describes the water flow in the pipe network in the due course of time. It also helps in determining the
systematic flow of water including the transportation losses like head loss which is the pre requisite
for providing lossless distribution. This analysis also helps to determine the exact flow including the
losses that happen during the transmission in order to match the supply as per requirement.



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 12

Figure 13: LSTM Prediction for 2019 Season 1

Figure 14: WDN Based on Forecast using LSTM

Figure 15: Water Flow during Distribution Stage on 17 Jan 2019 at Node 25 during 3.00 Hrs

Figure 16: Water Flow in WDN on 17th Jan 2019



https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977 13

5 Conclusion and future work
To conclude, an IoT based water distribution architecture integrated with Fog computing is pro-

posed along with a hydraulic WDN design using EPANET. In addition a comparative demand forecast
analysis is done for the efficient water distribution network design. This analysis is carried out on
the basis of day to day consumption of water over a 3 months period using LSTM and ARIMA. The
demand forecast analysis using LSTM provides a higher accuracy and minimal error compared to
ARIMA. On the basis of LSTM based forecast result, the water distribution system design for an IoT
based system is done with an aim of effective supply of water with minimal losses and well-defined
quality using hydraulic engineering which will result in establishing a smart water distribution network
(SWDN). In future, this work can be extended towards development of software agent-based model for
underground pipe health monitoring and consumption monitoring using agents built with intelligence,
which will intimate the SCADA engineer for immediate control action and supply restoration. During
critical stages this intelligent agent would bring control automation as a preventive measure.

Acknowledgements

This work is partially funded by FCT/MCTES through national funds and when applicable co-
funded EU funds under the Project UIDB/50008/2020; and by Brazilian National Council for Scientific
and Technological Development - CNPq, via Grant No. 309335/2017-5.

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Cite this paper as:
Narayanan, L.K.; Sankaranarayanan, S.; Rodrigues, J.J.P.C.; Kozlov, S. (2020). Water Demand Fore-
casting Using Deep Learning For Water Distribution System Design In IoT Enabled Water Distribution
Network, International Journal of Computers Communications & Control, 15(6), 3977, 2020.

https://doi.org/10.15837/ijccc.2020.6.3977.


	Introduction
	Literature Review
	Water Distribution Architecture using IoT
	Operation of Water Distribution System
	Water Demand Forecasting
	Recurrent Neural Network
	LSTM Networks
	Working of LSTM*


	Results and Discussion
	Water Distribution Design Using EPANET

	Conclusion and future work