In areas where floods were once rare, some neighborhoods are now flooding repeatedly. Storm water sewers are being overwhelmed by more intense storms.

Most of the solutions call for big pipes and expensive construction.

But a group of researchers wants to instead get cities to use their current systems better with an app.

Kerkez Branko and a team of researchers at the University of Michigan are helping wastewater managers use internet-connected sensors to better manage sewers.

The idea behind the research is fairly simple. Even when there’s a lot of rain, there are parts of a combined storm water and sanitary sewer system that aren’t full. There is storage capacity. The problem is you have to know where.

And it's going to be different for every system.