About Raingrid Planner

This tool helps engineers and designers optimize stormwater management systems for compliance with DC's stormwater regulations. It models the performance of gravity-fed cisterns with orifice valves and sizes rain gardens for overflow management.

Key Features

• Gravity-fed cistern modeling with 1cm orifice valve
• SCS Type II 24-hour storm distribution (DC's 1.7" design storm)
• Automated pre-drain timing optimization (0-48 hours)
• Rain garden sizing based on infiltration and ponding constraints
• SRC (Stormwater Retention Credit) calculations
• Hourly timestep simulation for accurate results

Technical Approach

The model uses hourly timesteps to simulate cistern performance during storm events. It employs a brute-force optimization approach, testing all possible pre-drain start times (0-48 hours before the storm) to find the configuration that minimizes overflow.

Rain gardens are sized using the larger of two constraints: the 72-hour drawdown requirement based on infiltration rate, or the ponding depth capacity with void ratio.

About RainGrid Inc.

RainGrid Inc. develops Intelligent Rain Retention & Reuse (IR3) systems that generate real-time property-level data about rainwater diverted. We monetize ecosystem outcomes and offset infrastructure disparities with environmental credits.