diff --git a/Applications/FileIO/SWMM/SWMMInterface.h b/Applications/FileIO/SWMM/SWMMInterface.h
index da001e9d810d6bd123701f4736748e6dfbd00976..e656c7f44b5c0bf54c79adc6e742948c6113a019 100644
--- a/Applications/FileIO/SWMM/SWMMInterface.h
+++ b/Applications/FileIO/SWMM/SWMMInterface.h
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ public:
         std::string const& vec_name, std::vector<double> const& data);
 
     /// Returns the mesh generated from SWMM file content.
-    MeshLib::Mesh const& getMesh() const { return *_mesh; }
+    MeshLib::Mesh& getMesh() const { return *_mesh; }
 
     /// Returns the name of the data array for the given object type and parameter index.
     std::string getArrayName(SwmmObject obj_type, std::size_t var_idx) const;
diff --git a/Applications/Utils/SWMMConverter/SWMMConverter.cpp b/Applications/Utils/SWMMConverter/SWMMConverter.cpp
index 8515288a88038d3e06ca079a07dc612e506e3375..1689da9bcf0ce89ddc13a5cda3238c5adac7c95f 100644
--- a/Applications/Utils/SWMMConverter/SWMMConverter.cpp
+++ b/Applications/Utils/SWMMConverter/SWMMConverter.cpp
@@ -55,12 +55,11 @@ int addObjectsToMesh(FileIO::SwmmInterface &swmm, MeshLib::Mesh &mesh,
 int writeMeshOutput(std::string const& input_file, std::string const& output_file,
     bool const node_args, bool const link_args)
 {
-    std::unique_ptr<FileIO::SwmmInterface> swmm = nullptr;
-    swmm = FileIO::SwmmInterface::create(input_file);
+    std::unique_ptr<FileIO::SwmmInterface> swmm = FileIO::SwmmInterface::create(input_file);
     if (swmm == nullptr)
     return -1;
 
-    MeshLib::Mesh mesh = swmm->getMesh();
+    MeshLib::Mesh& mesh = swmm->getMesh();
 
     bool const no_output_file = !swmm->existsSwmmOutputFile();
     if (!(node_args || link_args) || no_output_file)
@@ -106,8 +105,7 @@ void writeObjectsOfSwmmTypeToCsv(FileIO::SwmmInterface &swmm, FileIO::SwmmObject
 int writeCsvOutput(std::string input_file, std::string output_file,
     bool const node_args, bool const link_args, bool const catchment_args, bool const system_args)
 {
-    std::unique_ptr<FileIO::SwmmInterface> swmm = nullptr;
-    swmm = FileIO::SwmmInterface::create(input_file);
+    std::unique_ptr<FileIO::SwmmInterface> swmm = FileIO::SwmmInterface::create(input_file);
     if (swmm == nullptr)
         return -1;