Realising smarter stormwater management: A review of the barriers and a roadmap for real world application

Effective management of stormwater systems is necessary for protection of both the built and natural environments. However, stormwater management is facing multiple, growing challenges, including climate change, ageing infrastructure, population growth, urbanisation, environmental concerns, regulatory and institutional changes and public awareness. While the potential of ‘smart’, internet-of-things enabled stormwater management systems to address these challenges is increasingly being recognised, with considerable evidence in literature for the benefits of more data-driven approaches, implementation to date remains low. This paper, therefore, provides a comprehensive review of the potential barriers to adoption of smarter stormwater management practices that require addressing, and provides a roadmap for real world application. Barriers related to all elements of stormwater management, from the asset sensing to the data analytics and online optimisation, are identified. Technical challenges discussed include the availability and reliability of technologies, technological and physical limitations, decision making, uncertainty and security. Technical barriers are rapidly reducing and there is increasing evidence in the academic literature of the efficacy of smart technologies. However, socio-economic barriers remain a significant challenge, and issues such as trust and lack of confidence, resistance to change, expense, and lack of knowledge and guidance are reviewed. A ‘smart stormwater management wheel’ that provides a flexible and iterative approach for implementing smart functionality is also presented. Whilst acting as a roadmap, this aims to facilitate a structured methodology for overcoming barriers and benchmarking progress, and may be used to explore trade-offs and relationships between differing levels of implementation for each of the constituent technologies in a smart stormwater system.