Implementation of IoT-Based Sensor Systems for Smart Stormwater Management

Climate change has been linked to the occurrence of rainfall events with higher frequencies and intensities in various urban areas around the world. Existing stormwater systems in many areas are more frequently experiencing overloading beyond their design capacities, leading to more frequent flooding events. Recent technological advances surrounding the Internet of Things (IoT) have made it possible to retrofit existing stormwater infrastructure systems with cyber-physical technologies at lower costs. This paper presents the design and prototype implementation of an automated stormwater management system that uses inexpensive microcontroller units coupled with smart sensors and valves to minimize flooding events. The system design comprises a sensing layer to collect, control, and transfer real-time data; a gateway layer to receive, store, and process data; and an application layer to define interactions between system components. As such, the system aims to go beyond simple monitoring of stormwater levels and allow actions to be taken automatically. This paper demonstrates the testing of the system at a small lab scale experiment. It is anticipated that future versions of the proposed system will offer the potential to provide an automated and cost-effective solution to managing entire urban stormwater systems.