Ypsilanti, MI: Stormwater Infrastructure Mapping
September 2024 - December 2025
Ypsilanti Stormwater Infrastructure Dashboard
Community Description
The City of Ypsilanti, located in southeastern Michigan, is a historically significant community with a population of approximately 20,000 residents. It is a densely developed city with aging infrastructure and limited internal resources for asset management, particularly for stormwater infrastructure. The city is responsible for stormwater infrastructure operation, maintenance, and capital improvements. The city does not manage water distribution or sanitary sewer assets, which are handled by the Ypsilanti Community Utilities Authority.
Project Scope
The stormwater infrastructure mapping project is focused on improving the accuracy and complement of Ypsilanti’s stormwater infrastructure inventory meeting. At project initiation, the existing geographic information system (GIS) database contained an estimated 2,200 of 2,700 stormwater structures. The scope of this project was to locate, provide asset data and assess the manholes for the stormwater assets, update the GIS database, and develop a dashboard tool for real-time monitoring and future capital planning.
Services Provided
The services provided involved the field location and inventory of approximately 2,700 stormwater structures using high-accuracy GNSS receivers. A new ArcGIS database was created to store and manage this data, ensuring comprehensive documentation of all identified structures. To support real-time project tracking and monitor asset conditions, a customized ArcGIS Operations Dashboard was developed. In addition, Level 2 Manhole Assessment Certification Program (MACP) inspections were conducted on each of the structures to assess their condition. Automated scoring and reporting scripts were also developed and implemented within the GIS system to efficiently prioritize necessary manhole repairs based on the inspection results.
Challenges and Opportunities
| Type of Challenge | Project Experience | Outcomes and/or Opportunities |
|---|---|---|
| Labor/Workforce | City staff lacked the capacity and expertise to implement a full stormwater asset inventory and mapping initiative. | Linking the work order management system to the ArcGIS database and creating protocols to ensure data is updated during inspections and repairs to keep information current. Additionally, ensuring capital project updates are made to the ArcGIS database. |
| Technical | Existing GIS data was incomplete (asset and connectivity data) and real-time integration of MACP scores required custom development. | Custom dashboards and automated scoring scripts that improve data usability and decision making by city staff. |
| Financial | Due to unforeseen weather delays as well as the discovery of 500 additional structures, the project budget will be exceeded. | Highlights the importance of contingency funding infrastructure projects with low data quality and seasonal dependencies. |
Project Next Steps
EPIC and its partners provided strong technical and project management support that addressed the city’s capacity limitations. Future projects should continue to leverage cloud-based GIS tools and real-time dashboards to improve data transparency and accelerate decision-making. With limited funds dedicated to stormwater infrastructure, legislative actions to enable the use of stormwater utility fees would greatly improve Michigan city’s capacity to address these systems via dedicated revenue.