Case Study: City of Philadelphia achieves smarter stormwater management with Microsoft Azure

Critical collaboration in ‘The City of Brotherly Love’

The City of Philadelphia faced the challenge of managing stormwater runoff in its combined sewer system to prevent overflows and pollution during heavy rains. Working with **Microsoft Azure** through partner Opti, the Philadelphia Water Department used the **OptiNimbus** cloud-based monitoring and control solution to make stormwater management smarter and more predictive.

**Microsoft Azure** helped power a solution that automatically monitors weather forecasts, controls pond outlets in real time, and provides long-term data analytics. In a pilot on 8 acres of commercial property, the city kept **2.7 million gallons** of water out of the combined sewer in the first 212 days, accounting for **98.8% of total runoff** on the site, while improving operational insight for future projects.

City of Philadelphia

Eliza Pollack

Director of Innovation