How SewerTycoon Is Revolutionizing Stormwater Management—Without Requiring an Engineering Degree

Written By Digital Water Lab

Detroit’s stormwater system is drowning. Aging infrastructure, climate-fueled storms, and increased urban development have pushed the city's combined sewer system well past its limits. But what if local community organizations—not just engineers—could take a meaningful role in solving the problem?

Enter SewerTycoon—a customized, web-based simulation tool built on top of the EPA’s SWMM (Storm Water Management Model). Unlike traditional engineering software, this tool doesn't require a graduate degree in hydrology to use. It's designed to put powerful, city-scale digital stormwater modeling into the hands of local practitioners, grassroots organizations, and urban planners.

Here’s how the tech works—and why it matters.

Built for Local Impact, Powered by Engineering Precision

Most digital stormwater models are complex, expensive, and designed for trained engineers. SewerTycoon flips that script. It takes Detroit’s official EPA SWMM model—a city-scale simulation of pipes, pumps, rain gauges, and outfalls—and wraps it in an intuitive web interface. No desktop installations, no arcane input files, no modeling jargon. Just a clean dashboard for exploring and editing real green infrastructure plans.

Users can:

  • Add rain gardens across Detroit by clicking on a map of drainage subcatchments.

  • Simulate storm events (e.g., a real 50mm rainstorm from March 2020).

  • Compare outputs like sewer overflow volumes before and after proposed changes.

  • Visualize hydrological impacts with charts and maps of runoff and drainage zones.

The application doesn’t ask users to input conductivity values or design pipe diameters. Instead, it converts simple development plans into technically valid simulation parameters in the background—automating the translation from “community idea” to “model-ready input.”

The Stack Behind SewerTycoon

The platform isn’t just user-friendly—it’s technically robust:

  • Frontend: Built in React with Mapbox and Material UI for interactive mapping and a polished UX.

  • Backend: A FastAPI service in Python manages the computation pipeline.

  • Simulation engine: Uses pySWMM and SwmmIO to run Detroit’s actual EPA SWMM model in the cloud.

  • Hosting: Deployed via Amazon Web Services (EC2, S3, Cognito, DynamoDB) for scalability and accessibility.

When a user edits a plan, the backend modifies the SWMM input file directly, runs a cloud-hosted simulation, and pushes the results back to the browser. It’s seamless, fast, and backed by the same model approved for regulatory permits.

Guardrails for Trust and Validity

While the tool limits what users can edit (e.g., they can only place rain gardens, not change pipe widths), this is by design. The constraints prevent unrealistic configurations and ensure that any scenario generated through SewerTycoon remains within acceptable engineering standards.

This gives practitioners access to credible, reproducible data—the kind that decision-makers, regulators, and funders can trust.

Why This Matters for Cities

By democratizing stormwater modeling, SewerTycoon enables:

  • Data-informed advocacy: Community groups can now back their proposals with city-scale runoff data.

  • Strategic planning: Users can test green infrastructure placements for maximum impact before construction begins.

  • Equity and inclusion: Non-engineering stakeholders gain a voice in technical decision-making.

Ultimately, it bridges a critical gap between local knowledge and city infrastructure planning. The social networks and practical insight of community leaders now have a direct path into the digital models that shape our water systems.

The Future of Stormwater Tech

As Detroit invests $50M into green infrastructure by 2029, tools like SewerTycoon can help ensure those funds are used where they’ll make the most difference. More broadly, the model represents a new direction for civic tech—one where accessibility, accuracy, and agency are all part of the same platform.

It’s not just about simulating storms. It’s about reshaping who gets to plan for them.

Digital Water Lab