Smart Water Management with Digital Twins and Multimodal Transformers: A Predictive Approach to Usage and Leakage Detection

Effective water management is crucial in urban and rural settings, requiring efficient usage and timely detection of issues like leakages for sustainability. This paper introduces an integrated framework that combines Digital Twin technology with a multimodal transformer-based model for accurate water usage prediction and leakage detection. The system synchronizes real-time data from various sensors including flow meters, pressure sensors, and thermal imaging devices with a Digital Twin of the water network. Advanced transformer models, specifically the Informer model for long-term time-series prediction and a Water Multimodal Transformer for anomaly detection, process these data to capture complex patterns and dependencies. Experimental results demonstrate the framework’s effectiveness: the Informer model achieved an R2 score of 0.9995 and a Mean Squared Error (MSE) of 2.2, outperforming traditional models. For leakage detection, the model attained 98.4% accuracy and precision, an F1 score of 97.6%, a low False Positive Rate of 0.0019, and an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.984. By fusing diverse sensor data and utilizing advanced transformer architectures, the framework provides a comprehensive view of the water network, enabling real-time decision-making, enhancing forecasting accuracy, and reducing water waste. This scalable solution supports sustainable water management practices in both urban and industrial contexts.