Hi everyone,

I'm a first-year Computer Science (AI/ML) student from India. I'm trying to learn how to solve real-world infrastructure problems, and I'd really appreciate honest feedback from people with experience in civil engineering, drainage systems, construction, urban planning, environmental engineering, or anyone familiar with stormwater management.

The Problem:

Many Indian cities experience severe waterlogging during the monsoon because storm drains become overloaded or clogged. This causes traffic congestion, road damage, vehicle breakdowns, and safety issues.

My Concept:

I'm exploring an idea called Smart StormVault AI.

The idea is to install underground storage chambers at flood-prone locations. When drains become overloaded, these chambers would temporarily store excess rainwater instead of letting it accumulate on the road.

Low-cost water level and flow sensors would send data to a centralized control system, which would determine the best time to gradually release the stored water back into the drainage network once capacity becomes available.

I'm also exploring whether these chambers could integrate with rainwater harvesting or groundwater recharge where appropriate.

I'm not trying to prove I'm right.

I'm trying to find out why this wouldn't work.

Some questions I have:

1. Is this technically feasible?

2. What would be the biggest engineering challenge?

3. Would maintenance become a nightmare?

4. Is there already an existing solution that does this better?

4. If you worked for a municipality, would you ever consider installing something like this? Why or why not?

5. What am I overlooking?

Please don't hesitate to be critical. If this is a bad idea, I'd rather know now than after spending months developing it.

Thank you!