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As storm events in cities are becoming more regular and more intense, urban watersheds and their stormwater networks are becoming stressed beyond their design capacities leading to more frequent and destructive urban flooding events. However, traditional engineering interventions to improve upon these systems are unfavorable as they entail large-scale and cost-prohibitive infrastructure construction, and are a static solution to a dynamic and evolving problem.

Recent accessibility of low-cost sensors, microcontrollers, and wireless communication technology has made it possible for the existing stormwater networks to be retrofitted with an assortment of cyber-physical technologies that allow for inexpensive, versatile, minimally-invasive, and fully-automated stormwater control interventions (e.g. hydraulic valve operated by cellularly-connected actuator) [4] [9] [12]. To give an example demonstrating the impact …