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...

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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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Recent innovations in the irrigation industry indicate a transition to more water efficient and uniform systems. This transition is necessary to preserve limited aquifer resources used by irrigation systems in the U.S. Great Plains where center pivot irrigation has become the dominant irrigation method. New in-canopy sprinkler packages have allowed these center pivot systems to operate more efficiently and uniformly, however, these in-canopy sprinklers hang low in the canopy and have the potential to become entangled in crop biomass and detach from the center pivot. Detached in-canopy sprinklers can impact the uniformity of the irrigation system resulting in decreased crop yields by disrupting the designed flow and pressure requirements of the sprinkler package. Therefore, it is crucial that producers detect and replace missing in-canopy sprinklers immediately. The current method to detect missing in-canopy sprinklers is manual inspection along the center pivot which uses significant time and labor. A monitoring system to alert the user of any detachments can eliminate unnecessary exploration and direct the user to the specific location of the detached in-canopy sprinkler.A prototype in-canopy sprinkler monitoring system was designed to monitor in-canopy sprinklers on a center pivot irrigation system and alerts the user when and where an in-canopy sprinkler becomes detached from the center pivot span. The system utilizes three major components to accomplish this task: a master controller node, a series of sprinkler nodes, and a digital compass node. The master controller node requests the status of in-canopy sprinklers from each connected sprinkler node, which constantly monitors its connected in-canopy sprinkler, and if a sprinkler is found to be missing alerts the user via an SMS text message sent to their cell phone that the in-canopy sprinkler is missing and can be found at specific geographic coordinates. The master controller node calculates the geographic coordinates of the detached in-canopy sprinkler by requesting the current compass bearing angle of the center pivot span from the digital compass node. This angle, combined with the known coordinates of the pivot point of the center pivot system and radius of the detached in-canopy sprinkler from the pivot point can be used to calculate the coordinates of the detached in-canopy sprinkler.To test the performance of the designed system, it was connected to a demonstration center pivot and several trials were performed. The demonstration center pivot consisted of a rotatable span with eight detachable drop hoses and in-canopy sprinklers. Trials performed were designed to test the system's ability to react to detached in-canopy sprinklers and drop hoses, detect and identify issues that might arise during normal operation, and respond to user's SMS text messages with the proper system information as part of the user interface. The system successfully passed each set of trials ensuring that this prototype will accurately detect when and where an in-canopy sprin...

Recent innovations in the irrigation industry indicate a transition to more water efficient and uniform systems. This transition is necessary to preserve limited aquifer resources used by irrigation systems in the U.S. Great Plains where center pivot irrigation has become the dominant irrigation method. New in-canopy sprinkler packages have allowed these center pivot systems to operate more efficiently and uniformly, however, these in-canopy sprinklers hang low in the canopy and have the potential to become entangled in crop biomass and detach from the center pivot. Detached in-canopy sprinklers can impact the uniformity of the irrigation system resulting in decreased crop yields by disrupting the designed flow and pressure requirements of the sprinkler package. Therefore, it is crucial that producers detect and replace missing in-canopy sprinklers immediately. The current method to detect missing in-canopy sprinklers is manual inspection along the center pivot which uses significant time and labor. A monitoring system to alert the user of any detachments can eliminate unnecessary exploration and direct the user to the specific location of the detached in-canopy sprinkler.A prototype in-canopy sprinkler monitoring system was designed to monitor in-canopy sprinklers on a center pivot irrigation system and alerts the user when and where an in-canopy sprinkler becomes detached from the center pivot span. The system utilizes three major components to accomplish this task: a master controller node, a series of sprinkler nodes, and a digital compass node. The master controller node requests the status of in-canopy sprinklers from each connected sprinkler node, which constantly monitors its connected in-canopy sprinkler, and if a sprinkler is found to be missing alerts the user via an SMS text message sent to their cell phone that the in-canopy sprinkler is missing and can be found at specific geographic coordinates. The master controller node calculates the geographic coordinates of the detached in-canopy sprinkler by requesting the current compass bearing angle of the center pivot span from the digital compass node. This angle, combined with the known coordinates of the pivot point of the center pivot system and radius of the detached in-canopy sprinkler from the pivot point can be used to calculate the coordinates of the detached in-canopy sprinkler.To test the performance of the designed system, it was connected to a demonstration center pivot and several trials were performed. The demonstration center pivot consisted of a rotatable span with eight detachable drop hoses and in-canopy sprinklers. Trials performed were designed to test the system's ability to react to detached in-canopy sprinklers and drop hoses, detect and identify issues that might arise during normal operation, and respond to user's SMS text messages with the proper system information as part of the user interface. The system successfully passed each set of trials ensuring that this prototype will accurately detect when and where an in-canopy sprin...