MIT is using social media to map flooding from Hurricane Irma in real time

As Hurricane Irma bears down on the Florida peninsula this weekend, MIT’s Urban Risk Lab has launched RiskMap.us, an open-source platform that will track flooding in southern Florida. The project is being piloted to provide updates in real time to citizens and emergency planners, and allows for people to submit reports via Twitter, Facebook, or Telegram.The system uses a chatbot that users can message directly through any of the three social media sites, which sends users a link that will