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Urban stormwater management is increasingly a challenge due to land use change, aging infrastructure, and climate‐driven precipitation variability. Likewise, maintaining regulatory compliance for stormwater permits is becoming more difficult. This study develops and deploys stormwater sensors using an Internet of Things‐based monitoring framework on the University of Maryland campus, a spatially compact but land use diverse testbed, designed to support both compliance and adaptive planning. Across three campus outfalls for stormwater quantity and quality data collection, the study investigates how hyperlocal precipitation and catchment characteristics affect stormwater flow and identifies key patterns in stormwater flow and quality through continuous monitoring. Findings reveal correlations between runoff behaviors and catchment characteristics (i.e., imperviousness) and highlight site‐specific associations between runoff flow and water quality indicators (pH, turbidity, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen). These associations can be leveraged as indicators of flood and pollution risk for management and planning purposes. This study also explores the role of campus stakeholders in guiding a “smart” system design, deployment, and big data use and outlines adaptive and preventive strategies for mitigating field deployment challenges and optimizing system performance that is a practical, compliance‐oriented model for smart stormwater monitoring in complex urban settings at various scales. 

Participatory narratives are compelling, at least partly because of their ability to help players suspend disbelief in the fictional world in which they engage. Game makers have used the phrase “This is Not a Game” (TINAG) to capture the willingness of players to buy into such narratives in ways that promote productive roleplaying and authentic engagement. Although TINAG has permeated the academic and popular literature on gaming and immersive narratives for decades, there has not been a scientific grounding for the term that provides researchers support for a more rigorous study of the topic. This article makes two primary contributions. First, it provides a definition of the Perception of TINAG based on a systematic literature review of 50 articles that define or describe critical characteristics of TINAG: The Perception of TINAG is a player’s acceptance that they are embedded in and able to influence a fictional story woven into the real world. Second, the paper develops and validates a survey instrument that researchers can use to measure the Perception of TINAG and its three unique components: (1) the player accepts that they are embedded in a fictional story, (2) the player believes their actions influence the narrative, and (3) the player perceives that the story is woven into the real world. We evaluated the instrument using exploratory factor analysis using expert reviewers and game players. We include a table of the articles describing TINAG and our final scale to facilitate future research.