Drinking water distribution networks in urban areas are daily-based subjected to fast propagating pressure waves resulting from routine operations. These water-hammer waves leads to structural aging and facility damages, the origin of which is not easy to find , but are sometimes of high managerial interest. In this contribution, we demonstrate that using a reasonable number of high-frequency pressure detectors distributed within the network combined with a proper post-processing method permits a close geolocalization of the damaging wave origin. The method is first tested and validated on a real water distribution network having approximately 26 000 pipes, whereas considering a known, prescribed wave-origin, so that the sensitivity to sensor number (sensor spatial density), sensor location and signal-to-noise ratio on the geolocalization robustness is are analyzed in detail. It is then applied and illustrated over real sensor recordings the result of which are validated on the field from history matching. This paper thus presents the first field-scale geolocalization of water-hammer events origin test as well conditions for which, given sensor density and signal-to-noise ratio, the geolocalization success is to be expected.