Webcast 7. Smart Stormwater Infrastructure: Integrating AI, and Real-Time Controls

Speakers:

Kathy Gee, Opti
Alex Bedig, Opti
Smart Stormwater Infrastructure: Integrating AI and Real-Time Controls

Municipal stormwater programs face the mounting challenge of managing expanding MS4 compliance obligations, climate-driven flooding, and aging infrastructure with constrained budgets and staffing. Transitioning to a Smart Watershed framework leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) and real-time data to transform traditional, reactive stormwater management into a proactive, network-wide decision support system.
This session explores how AI accelerates the evolution of smart stormwater infrastructure through asset digitization and robust data integration. By unifying disparate data streams—including GIS asset inventories, spatial watershed planning metrics, weather forecasts, stream gauge data, and routine maintenance logs—stormwater managers can construct an intelligent baseline. This integrated digital framework enhances long-term planning, streamlines maintenance operations, and provides an accurate view of performance across distributed stormwater practices.
A central focus of the webinar will be identifying optimal locations for Continuous Monitoring and Adaptive Control (CMAC) technology. Attendees will examine how AI algorithms can be used to integrate hydrologic, spatial, and structural data to pinpoint precisely where real-time controls or monitoring deliver maximum return on investment to a stormwater management program. The session demonstrates how pairing predictive analytics with automated real-time valve control actively manages storage volume, regulates drawdown, mitigates peak flows, and improves wet-weather performance across the watershed network. Ultimately, establishing true program accountability and watershed resilience is well within our reach—provided we bridge the gap between asset digitization, multi-source data integration, and targeted real-time controls.

Savannah Roth,
Stormwater Extension Associate, North Carolina State University

As impervious cover expands and large storm events become more frequent, stormwater control measures (SCMs) across the country are increasingly being asked to treat runoff volumes they were never designed for. Bringing these SCMs back in line with current treatment demands requires retrofits, but conventional approaches are often expensive and labor-intensive, putting them out of reach for many municipalities. Open-source real-time control (RTC) offers a low-cost, adaptable retrofit strategy for meeting that need. RTC systems pair water level sensors, forecast-driven logic, and automated outlet valves to actively manage SCM storage and release, turning passive infrastructure into responsive infrastructure without requiring full reconstruction. This presentation will share progress from pilot RTC installations on wet ponds, dry detention basins, and a rainwater harvesting system, and compare open-source and commercial RTC platforms.  

Webcast 8. Behavior Change for Watershed Health: Social Science Strategies That Work

Speakers:

Dr. Monica Miller-Smith, Coral Bay Community Council
Behavior Change for Watershed Health: Social Science Strategies That Work
This webcast will explore how behavior change campaigns, incentives, and social marketing are being used to reduce pollution at the source—engaging homeowners, developers, businesses, and institutions in meaningful stormwater stewardship. By increasing effective communication channels between watershed management institutions and community members, watershed stewards can better understand how people perceive their watershed and community.

In this discussion, Dr. Monica Miller-Smith will examine how the intersection between attitudes, beliefs, and norms can influence behavior. Identifying key social science strategies that increase awareness, strengthen communal bonds, and cultivate trust amongst community members and in stakeholders provides opportunities for collective response and encourages personal responsibility in protecting watershed health. Solving watershed challenges extends past understanding technicalities, it is also rooted in empowering people to change behaviors, advocating for progress, creating sustainable practices, and investing in building resilient communities.

Na'Taki Jelks, Spelman College

Refund Policy
If a registrant is unable to attend a webcast, there are three options:

1. Watch the archived recording. All webcasts are recorded, and registered attendees are provided with the link and all relevant materials. No action is required if selecting this option.
2. Email webcast@cwp.org to let us know, and select another webcast to attend in place of the one you will miss.
3. Request a refund. Refunds are provided as long as the cancellation request occurs more than 48 hours in advance of a webcast. The amount charged for the webcast will be refunded, except for a $30 processing fee.