A novel methodology is proposed to detect and locate bursts in water pipe networks. Conventional detection methods include a cumulative sum (CUSUM) and a wavelet transform (WT). However, the CUSUM has a problem of slow response and the WT is sensitive to signal transitions. In this work, two algorithms are integrated to effectively detect sudden pressure changes of water pipe networks. A network node matrix is also proposed to systematically represent the candidate locations of bursts. The developed burst detection and location system is validated with real field data obtained from simulated bursts by opening hydrant valves for simple and complex pipe networks and the result shows better performance than previous works.