Cleanlet: a smart app for enhancing urban flood resilience through automated stormwater inlet management

ABSTRACT Urban pluvial flooding, a growing challenge due to increasingly intense precipitation, occurs when stormwater runoff exceeds drainage system capacities in urban areas. This type of flooding is distinct from fluvial and coastal flooding, which are caused by overflowing rivers and high tides, respectively. Traditional grey infrastructure and modern green infrastructure methods have been implemented to manage urban stormwater, though their efficiency is often hindered by clogged inlets. The Cleanlet app was developed to address this issue by integrating real-time weather data and automation for stormwater inlet cleaning, offering timely notifications when rainfall thresholds are exceeded. Using an application programming interface developed by the National Weather Service that provides real-time rainfall data and Firebase for backend functionality, the app facilitates crowd-sourced just-in-time inlet cleaning. This paper presents the app's architecture, its functionality (including threshold setting and automated notifications), and a case study demonstrates the app's performance during a storm event, illustrating its potential to enhance urban flood mitigation efforts.