Frequency-informed transformer for real-time water pipeline leak detection

Abstract Water pipeline leaks pose significant risks to urban infrastructure, leading to water wastage and potential structural damage. Existing leak detection methods often face challenges, such as heavily relying on the manual selection of frequency bands or complex feature extraction, which can be both labour-intensive and less effective. To address these limitations, this paper introduces a Frequency-Informed Transformer model, which integrates the Fast Fourier Transform and self-attention mechanisms to enhance water pipe leak detection accuracy. Experimental results show that FiT achieves 99.9% accuracy in leak detection and 98.7% in leak type classification, surpassing other models in both accuracy and processing speed, with an efficient response time of 0.25 seconds. By significantly simplifying key features and frequency band selection and improving accuracy and response time, the proposed method offers a potential solution for real-time water leak detection, enabling timely interventions and more effective pipeline safety management.