January 22, 2025

In January, MIT received the 2024 Best Practices Report Award from the International Sustainable Campus Network (ISCN). The ISCN's 2024 Best Practices Report highlighted MIT's project, "Crowdsourcing Building Porosity Data Collection to Support Flood Mapping and Resiliency Planning," as a notable example of innovative sustainability practices in higher education.

In the summer of 2021, the MIT Urban Risk Lab launched "Porosity Hunt," a citizen-science initiative to assess campus buildings' vulnerability to flooding. Participants, including students, researchers, and faculty, surveyed entry points such as windows, doors, and vents across 31 buildings. The collected data, encompassing 1,030 porosity points, was integrated into MIT's flood risk model to enhance simulation accuracy for various storm scenarios. Preliminary findings indicated that certain buildings and basements are more susceptible to flooding, informing MIT's Climate Resiliency and Adaptation Roadmap for future infrastructure adaptations.

This project aligns with MIT's commitment to developing a comprehensive Climate Resiliency and Adaptation Roadmap, as outlined in "Fast Forward: MIT’s Climate Action Plan for the Decade." By engaging the community in data collection and analysis, MIT fosters a proactive approach to campus sustainability and resilience planning.

Read more about this project on the MIT Urban Risk Lab website.