Setting Stormwater Rates Using Machine Learning

City of Mineral Wells, Texas, Uses Image Classification in Stormwater Rate Study

By Tak Makino

The City of Mineral Wells, Texas, is a community of approximately 15,000 people west of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex. The city has experienced numerous floods in recent years, including significant damage in the 2015 Memorial Day floods. Its stormwater infrastructure needs repair, maintenance and expansion that is currently not in the city’s budget. To address this shortfall, the city contracted with Lockwood, Andrews & Newnam, Inc. (LAN), a national planning, engineering and program management firm, and NewGen Solutions, a management consulting firm, to perform a stormwater utility rate study.