Smart Watersheds

Most legacy stormwater infrastructure was built around flood control – not water quality, ecosystem health or resilience. To meet the demands of today, and be ready for the climate of tomorrow, we need a new generation of tools and resources. Enter the smart watershed.

From passive to responsive

As water moves through our current isolated, passive infrastructure, we receive no data or insight. A smart watershed instead transforms passive infrastructure into a coordinated, responsive system.

Rather than replacing existing infrastructure, it can be upgraded with sensors and controls, combined with modeling and planning tools — giving it a second life at a fraction of the cost of building new capacity.

This is what we’re building toward at Brightstorm with our collaborators across the public and private sector.

Parts of a smart watershed

Data and monitoring – A watershed without blind spots

In-pond sensors track water levels and quality in real time. Stream gauges measure flow upstream and downstream of each pond. Satellite data and weather stations feed forecasts into the network — showing not just where water is now, but what's coming next.

Physical controls - Infrastructure that responds to the storm in front of it

Before a forecasted storm arrives, automated controls draw down pond storage to create capacity. During the event, release rates adjust in real time — balancing flood risk across multiple sites simultaneously rather than managing each pond in isolation.

Digital modeling - A live virtual model of the watershed

The digital model can run millions of storm scenarios and infrastructure configurations, moving investment decisions from best-guess to evidence-led. It also improves the functioning of existing smart systems over time — forecasting future conditions and helping operators respond before problems develop.

Open tools – Built and made available for all

Modeling, data standards, and control logic are all open source, and made to support permitting and regulatory pathways.

The work is co-developed with state and federal partners and informed by real-world projects, grounding our tools in current regulatory frameworks while preparing them to support future reforms.

Learn more about why stormwater management is so important and see how the approach is being demonstrated in a real watershed system.

Smart watersheds
start with Alluvia

Smart Watershed Network Management connects ponds and other distributed stormwater assets so they can be planned and ultimately operated as a coordinated system. Alluvia provides the digital tools to help make that possible.

Alluvia helps you understand how water moves through your watershed

Alluvia is an open gateway for smart watershed innovation

Created in collaboration with leading watershed scientists, engineers, and modeling experts, Alluvia is designed to build, host, iterate, and scale smart watershed tools freely and in collaboration with the community. Alluvia acts as a gateway by bringing complex models and tools into a clear, interactive visual interface, delivering immediate insights without requiring a GIS or modeling background. Its goal is to create a shared foundation for planning, operation, and continuous learning, supporting everyone working to keep our water clean, ecosystems thriving, and communities safe with smarter watersheds.

What you can do with Alluvia now

Map local waterways: Automatically trace small, hyper-local watersheds (microwatersheds) to see exactly where the water in your local area flows.
Track water quality & runoff: Run models to see data on rainfall, impervious surfaces, and pollution hotspots, identifying problem areas.
Test drainage & storage: Run simulations to see how ponds, pipes, and potential smart pond retrofits will handle rain events.
Define your own area: Draw a boundary on the map or upload your own files to analyze any area.

A microwatershed is a small, locally connected drainage area that contributes water to a common outlet, such as a stream, pond or drain.

Alluvia is made for:

Environmental engineers: Model runoff, nutrients, and project retrofit opportunities across a study area, and generate planning-level hydraulic models.
Municipal planners: Identify priority drainage areas and make the case for stormwater investments.
Project consultants: Rapidly perform watershed analyses and deliver GIS-ready outputs to clients.
Watershed scientists: Explore adaptive control scenarios and their effect on local hydrology.

Alluvia will be freely
available for your use soon.

Plan, operate, and learn more about your microwatershed

The Alluvia platform addresses the full arc of stormwater management to facilitate and build foundations for planning, operations, and continuous learning.

Alluvia Compass

Watershed planning intelligence to help identify where to invest

Makes rigorous watershed planning accessible to the agencies that need it most. Free, browser-based tools compress weeks of consultant-led modeling into hours.
Identifies where smart pond investments generate the greatest return — and builds a defensible investment case without proprietary software.

Alluvia Core

Alluvia Core – AI/ML intelligence for existing deployments, to help operate what is built

Building the research, open-source tools, and regulatory groundwork that make automated stormwater controls adoptable — by the agencies and districts that own the infrastructure,
Smart pond optimization — validating performance and publishing the methods for coordinated, multi-site operation across a shared watershed network

Alluvia Horizon

Alluvia Horizon – Researching what comes next

Advances the AI/ML frontier through digital twin development, open-source tools, and peer-reviewed publications — while building institutional infrastructure for adoption.
Structured R&D pipeline led by external academic and industry collaborators — openly published pilot tracks extending Core and Compass.