SCC-IRG Track 1: Integrating Community Dynamics, Environmental Data, and AI to Advance Green Stormwater Infrastructure Sustainability in Urban Environments

This Smart and Connected Communities (SCC) project supports research on green stormwater infrastructure (GSI) systems through real-time monitoring and AI-driven models. It integrates engineering, computer science, urban planning, policy making, and social science together with government agencies and community organizations in two US cities (Austin and Philadelphia). GSI systems are becoming a prevalent strategy to mitigate stormwater challenges. However, adoption is constrained by a lack of knowledge of life-cycle performance, lack of standard processes for including data into design and policy, and poor understanding of community dynamics. The project aims to develop AI models to advance GSI management by incorporating local community and environment needs, and ultimately enable effective, accurate, efficient, culturally responsive, and automated operations. The models are intended to help broaden community engagement with stormwater solutions while providing important social context for engineers and planners. As a result, urban ecosystem services and community resilience are expected to improve over time. Findings of a prior SCC Planning Grant revealed a set of gaps at the intersection of communities and GSI sustainable performance: 1) lack of science-based, data-driven GSI maintenance protocols; 2) lack of incorporation of community dynamics in GSI management; and 3) a need for public access to actionable information, a critical factor to long-term success of such systems. To bridge these gaps, research will look to develop innovative real-time monitoring and AI -driven models to be integrated to support decisions by GSI managers, maintenance crews, property owners and community organizations. The developed smart GSI system will be equipped to 1) allow for targeted and efficient maintenance, 2) improve sustainable function by incorporating community composition and history, and 3) empower communities with actionable information and platforms. The interdisciplinary team of researchers, government agencies, and community partners will collaborate to create a set of data driven technologies and tools to design smart, sustainable, community driven, equitable GSI systems for urban communities in two disparate cities. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.