Smart stormwater management programs rely on IoT technology

The winter of 2022/2023 brought heavy rains and snowstorms to the western United States. While a welcome change from winters that did not do enough to fill lakes and reservoirs, the 78 trillion gallons of water dumped on California in the past six months has resulted in widespread flooding and stormwater runoff. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in fact, has noted that the western U.S. has experienced one of the wettest winters on record, with significant impact on communities and infrastructure.  

These events highlight the need for smart stormwater management practices that can help mitigate the impacts of extreme weather. Internet of Things (IoT) technology provides an opportunity to develop more effective strategies for managing stormwater collection and runoff, identifying mechanical failures, and reducing pollution.  

Pilot programs matter for smart stormwater management 

Pilot programs can play a crucial role in driving smart stormwater management by allowing organizations to test and refine new technologies and strategies before implementing them on a larger scale.  

According to a recent Wi-SUN study of United Kingdom and United States IT decision makers, half of all organizations with smart utility strategies have now delivered projects, up from 38% five years ago. However, there is still a long way to go as the industry matures. Therefore, pilot programs are essential for driving innovation and ensuring the success of smart stormwater management initiatives.  

In fact, in a recent survey of 250 utility companies, 75% cited pilot projects of critical importance for driving innovation. Seventy percent of respondents in the same survey agreed that government funding was important to the growth of smart utility development. With funding available through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, opportunities exist for programs to be piloted and tested.  

The role of IoT in collection, conservation and efficiency efforts 

With programs like Measure W in Los Angeles, which passed in 2018 to help improve LA County’s aging stormwater infrastructure, there is a clear understanding of the need to capture stormwater for the drought-plagued region. Unfortunately, there is a long way to go – the LA Times reported in January that only 20% of the stormwater from this winter’s storms will be captured. 

IoT technology can help. Advanced meter infrastructure is now the third most likely use case for IoT deployments, cited by 80% of respondents in the Wi-SUN study. Intelligent IoT devices can monitor water purity levels, ensure compliance with sanitation standards, watch sediment levels, and manage gray water.  

Furthermore, IoT devices like sensors and other monitoring tools can help stormwater management programs to identify when collection systems are nearing or exceeding capacity. They can also read in real-time what areas are experiencing more runoff than others and adjust stormwater infrastructure accordingly to respond to varying volumes. 

The importance of reliable, secure and open standards-baad networks 

Implementing IoT systems can be challenging due to security, complexity and the need to see proven ROI (Return on Investment). Therefore, it is crucial to use the right IoT technology, built on open standards, to ensure reliability, robustness and security. 

5G communications is not cost-effective or energy-efficient enough for IoT devices used in the water network. Instead, field area networks (FANs) based on wireless mesh topologies offer a better option. Standards based FAN (field area networks) technology is specifically designed for large-scale outdoor networks and can support a range of IoT devices such as advanced metering and pressure sensors without concerns about interoperability. Open standards mean more choice of device manufacturers, driving cost efficiencies and reducing the risk of vendor lock-in. 

Wi-SUN FANs can be incorporated into city-wide smart streetlighting to create a canopy network off which stormwater providers can hang leaf nodes for their edge devices – that means commercial opportunities with energy companies and local municipalities, which can reduce CapEx costs.  

Because devices must be certified to rigorous standards, there is added reliability, robustness and security. The latter is especially important as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has gone on record saying that public water systems continue to be at risk from cyber-attacks that pose a threat to public health. Certification of devices to meet standards- based authentication and encryption ensures that devices and networks cannot be spoofed, and data is not vulnerable to interception, reducing the risk of sabotage, ransom-based attacks or data theft. According to our research, security and safety remains the most common technical challenge among IoT project managers. 

There is a wealth of choice, innovation and opportunity for stormwater management programs that look toward IoT to help solve their pressing challenges. Looking toward public funding, pilot programs and open standards-based FANs are three key elements to managing stormwater in the most advanced ways. 

Phil Beecher is the president and CEO of Wi-SUN Alliance, a global non-profit member-based association driving the proliferation of interoperable wireless solutions for use in smart cities and other IoT applications. He can be reached at [email protected]