Cyber-Physical Systems for Water Supply Network Management: Basics, Challenges, and Roadmap

Water supply systems are dynamic in nature, owing to the effect of climate change and consumer demand uncertainties. The operation of such a system must be managed effectively to meet up with the uncertainties, thus posing a key challenge. Unfortunately, previous information and communication technology (ICT) solutions could not provide the necessary support for applications to deal with the dynamics of the changing physical environment. Nevertheless, tremendous growth in technology offers better possibilities to enhance water supply systems’ operations. As a result, development in technology in sensing and instrumentation, communication and networking, computing and control is now jointly integrated with water supply system infrastructures to enhance the water system operations. One such technological paradigm shift is the cyber-physical system (CPS). In this paper, we present the concept of the CPS in the water system context and investigate the CPS applications to water supply system monitoring. Also, the various applications of CPSs and the application domain requirements are outlined. More importantly, research studies on its application to water system monitoring are scrutinized. As such, key challenges sounding the applications in WSSs are identified. We then outline the areas of improvement for further studies.