The city of Chicago received 182,000 claims, totaling $735 million, over just five years in regard to flooding alone. The key, it realized, was the ability of its soil to absorb water from rainfall. So the city enacted several initiatives from bioswales and planters containing highly absorbent plants, to permeable pavers to aid rainwater filtration. However, it lacked information on filtration and absorption rates that would allow for accurate flood prediction and early warning systems. Chicago turned to the internet of things (IoT) which, enabled by sensors and cloud based analytics, could bring visibility and foresight to these natural underground water systems. Having already implemented several smart city systems, the city knew that they could not take on this task alone. “I don’t think for anything at this scale Chicago would have been able to do it by itself, or even possibly with one company,” said Brenna Berman, CIO of the city’s Department of Innovation […]