Rain & Traffic, What a Match!

It's a cloudy evening with gentle breeze! You are already enjoying a hot beverage and fried snack whose taste are now enhanced by the change in the climate. A set of friends are arguing something a bit far, so it's enjoyable but not disturbing and you are humming to the mild music in the background. Hmm! What a day!

But people living in cities feel something different. "I have to reach home soon because once it starts to rain, water starts to log in the road, traffic will increase , the entire night and the next day will go to waste."

One of controllable things in this scenario is the poor water drainage system that affects lot of major cities and its people.

One solution using smart devices!

The street lights opposite to these water drains can have a measuring apparatus that can calculate how much centimetres (or millimetres) have rained during a time frame. Once the measuring apparatus reaches it capacity, valves can be opened to drain them and start measuring again.

Now lot of street cameras are there, let's attach one to this street light, which in addition to monitoring traffic, can zoom in on the water drain. Now use image recognition algorithm or just a water pressure gauge or any mechanism to measure how much water is flowing into the drain.

If there is heavy rain and the water drain is already operating at full capacity, nothing can be done and it's fine. But if it is slow with respect to the time interval between the opening of the valves, alert concerned people, so they can resolve it quickly.

Credits

Image created with https://www.canva.com/