In order to solve the problem of leakage point positioning in the underground water pipeline network, a generalized cross-correlation algorithm GCC based on fast Fourier transform is
proposed in this paper. By suppressing the disturbance of the noise signal to time delay estimation, our algorithm can effectively reduce the error rate, improve the operation speed and
make a signal source processing based on dynamic signal capturing to find the time delay points more precisely. Besides, the error can be reduced to a minimum range by our generalized cross- correlation algorithm so that the precise positioning on the underground water pipeline network can be realized. The simulation experimental results show that our generalized cross-correlation algorithm GCC is effective, feasible and applicable to detect and localize the leakage point in the underground water pipeline.