Extreme weather and the proliferation of impervious areas in urban watersheds increases the frequency of flood events and deepens water quality concerns. Bioretention is a type of green infrastructure practice developed to mitigate these impacts by reducing peak flows, runoff volume, and nutrient loads in stormwater. However, studies have shown inconsistency in the ability of bioretention to manage some pollutants, particularly some forms of nitrogen. Innovative sensor and control technologies are being tested to actively manage urban stormwater, primarily in open water stormwater systems such as wet ponds. Through these cyber-physical controls, it may be possible to optimize storage time and/or soil moisture dynamics within bioretention cells to create more favorable conditions for water quality improvements. A column study testing the influence of active control on bioretention system performance was conducted over a 9-week period. Active control columns were regulated based on either maintaining a specific water level or soil moisture content and were compared to free draining (FD) and internal water storage standards. Actively controlled bioretention columns performed similarly, with the soil moisture-based control showing the best performance with over 86% removal of metals and total suspended solids (TSS) while also exhibiting the highest ammonium removal (43%) and second highest nitrate removal (74%). While all column types showed mostly similar TSS and metal removal trends (median 94 and 98%, respectively), traditionally FD and internal water storage configurations promoted aerobic and anaerobic processes, respectively, which suggests that actively controlled systems have greater potential for targeting both processes. The results suggest that active controls can improve upon standard bioretention designs, but further optimization is required to balance the water quality benefits gained by retention time against storage needs for impending storms.

Dry extended detention basins are static stormwater infrastructure, unable to adapt to shifts in water quality caused by urbanization in their source watersheds or long-term changes in rainfall patterns. As...

Recent accessibility of affordable sensing technologies, microcontrollers, and wireless communication technology has made it possible for stormwater systems to be retrofitted with an assortment of sensors and actuators. These smart stormwater systems have enabled the real-time sensing of their surrounding environmental dynamics, and subsequently, provide the basis for autonomous and adaptive operational control strategies. Additionally, these systems allow for inexpensive and minimally-invasive stormwater control interventions (e.g. hydraulic valve operated by cellularly-connected actuator) in lieu of new construction. However promising this area of smart stormwater control, there still remain barriers -for experts and novices

The preservation of limited aquifer resources in the US Great Plains has driven the innovation and deployment of more efficient sprinkler packages for center pivot irrigation systems. One of the more efficient sprinkler packages available are in-canopy sprinkler packages, which hang low in the canopy. Although effective, they have the potential to become entangled in crop biomass and detach from the center pivot. Such detachments impact the efficiency and uniformity of the system, resulting in disrupted flow and pressure conditions, ultimately decreasing crop yield. Therefore, it is crucial that producers detect and replace missing in-canopy sprinklers immediately. A novel prototype monitoring system was designed using low-cost, publicly available technologies to monitor in-canopy sprinklers on a center pivot irrigation system and alert the user when and where an in-canopy sprinkler has become detached from the center pivot span. Later design revisions of the monitoring system introduced the ability of the monitoring system to also detect when a sprinkler became clogged. Experimental trials verified that the monitoring system operates efficiently and accurately; however, minor changes need to be made before large-scale implementation is possible.

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