When I was a child, my grandfather would take me outside to read the sky. He pointed to clouds and explained what weather was coming. He had served as a US military meteorologist during the Second World War, when an inaccurate forecast could have profound consequences.
I think about that lesson often in my work on stormwater technology, because it captures the future of stormwater management: if you can predict what is coming, you can prepare for it.
Today, most people glance at a phone and move on if a forecast misses the mark. For communities managing flooding, runoff and water quality, accuracy still matters deeply. Assuming the future will look like the past can leave streets flooded because the infrastructure beneath them was sized for a climate that no longer exists.
It can also leave estuaries and rivers under pressure from runoff routed through stormwater ponds designed mainly to move water away from nearby properties.
Many water managers are still making decisions using models based on historic rainfall averages. In a changing climate, those numbers may no longer describe the conditions outside their windows.
The system we inherited
The uncomfortable truth is that many communities are trying to solve a 21st-century stormwater challenge with 20th-century infrastructure.
Pipes, detention ponds and drainage channels form the backbone of conventional stormwater systems. They were largely engineered for a world with more predictable rainfall, fewer hard surfaces and a narrower view of what stormwater infrastructure should do.
For decades, stormwater management focused heavily on flood control. Water quality, ecosystem health and climate adaptation were often secondary considerations.
When communities experience poor water quality, the response is often familiar. Regulators demand action, funding is allocated and projects are built. Some deliver real improvements. But the underlying logic often remains unchanged: how systems are planned, operated and maintained continues to rely on static assumptions.
We are solving a 21st-century crisis with 20th-century infrastructure.
Stormwater professionals know the consequences. They field the calls when streets flood. They push for more resources. They manage budgets that may cover compliance, but not always the outcomes communities need.
Reprogramming existing infrastructure
The challenge is not that every system must be torn down and rebuilt. In many places, the opportunity is to reprogram what already exists.
A thermostat can receive weather data, learn patterns and adjust. A smartphone map can use live traffic information to suggest a better route. These are everyday examples of technology-enabled decisions informed by real-time data.
Now consider a stormwater pond behind a subdivision. In many cases, it has no sensors, no connection to neighbouring systems and no awareness of the storm approaching or the stressed waterway downstream.
Yet those passive ponds also represent millions of potential intervention points.
By layering sensors, real-time controls and AI-supported decision tools onto existing infrastructure, stormwater assets can become part of a coordinated and adaptive network. Such systems can hold water longer when pollutants need time to settle, release it strategically to reduce flood risk and learn from each storm.
This is not simply theoretical. Active stormwater controls have already been tested across multiple sites, generating large volumes of operational data and showing how existing assets can be made more responsive.
Why open decision tools matter
For smart watersheds to succeed, water managers, regulators and communities need to trust the technology. That means the decision logic behind smart stormwater systems must be transparent.
Commercial software will have a role in providing secure and reliable operations at scale. But if a water manager cannot understand why a valve opened, or interrogate the model behind a decision, the sector risks replacing outdated infrastructure with a new kind of dependency.
Open methods, open data and interoperable tools are essential to building confidence. They allow regulators to examine assumptions, practitioners to compare performance and communities to understand how decisions affect flood risk and water quality.
If a water manager cannot see why a valve opened, we have not built a smart watershed. We have built a dependency.
The shift has parallels with the smart grid. The electricity sector did not transform by replacing every wire. It added an intelligence layer that helped manage demand and reduce the risk of cascading failures.
Stormwater can follow a similar path, but only if systems are open, interoperable and accessible to smaller municipalities as well as large utilities.
From separate assets to smart watersheds
Watersheds do not stop at jurisdictional boundaries. Stormwater infrastructure is often split between public authorities, private developments, homeowners’ associations and other landowners.
Making smart watersheds work will require collaboration across those boundaries. It means bringing together flood engineers, water quality planners, regulators, technology providers, academic partners and communities.
That type of collaboration is already emerging. Technology, academic and engineering organisations are developing tools that can be replicated more widely, including pilots in sensitive catchments such as Florida’s Indian River Lagoon.
The aim is to build the evidence base regulators need before new approaches are adopted at scale. Agencies responsible for public safety and environmental protection rightly have a high bar. Smart watershed systems need to meet it.
A forecast for stormwater’s future
The runoff that leaves a car park does not disappear. It reaches a living system: a river where children swim, a bay where families fish or a lagoon that supports an entire food web.
Stormwater professionals often choose this work because a place that mattered to them became a cause worth protecting. It might be a lake, a coast, a river or a local stream. The goal is the same: healthier watersheds for future generations.
My grandfather could never have imagined the prediction tools available today. But he would have understood why they matter.
The sector has the tools to move from reactive to adaptive, from fragmented to coordinated, and from compliance alone to measurable outcomes. Existing communities can be reprogrammed to behave more like natural systems.
The places we love cannot afford to wait.
FAQs
What is a smart watershed?
A smart watershed uses sensors, forecasting, controls and data-driven decision tools to manage stormwater across a connected catchment rather than treating each pond, pipe or drain as a separate asset.
Why does stormwater infrastructure need to change?
Many stormwater systems were designed using historic rainfall patterns and narrower flood-control objectives. More intense rainfall, urban development and water quality pressures mean passive infrastructure may no longer be enough.
Can existing stormwater ponds be upgraded?
Yes. In many cases, existing ponds and basins can be improved with monitoring equipment, real-time controls and better decision tools, helping them respond more dynamically to storms and downstream conditions.
Why is open-source technology important for stormwater?
Open methods and transparent decision logic help regulators, water managers and communities understand how smart stormwater systems work and why specific decisions are made.
How can smart watersheds improve water quality?
Smart controls can help hold stormwater for longer when pollutants need time to settle, release water at more suitable times and coordinate storage across multiple assets to reduce pressure on rivers, bays and estuaries.
