RI News Today — Brown Researchers Release NEST: Real-Time Flooding, Air-Quality Data Available to RI Communities

March 11, 2026

RINewsToday.com — New sensor network makes real-time flooding, air-quality data available to Rhode Island communities

A team of Brown University researchers has launched a new network of environmental sensors that monitor flood conditions, air quality and weather data across Rhode Island. The data, collected from nearly 100 sensors statewide, are available to anyone through an online dashboard.

The dual goals of the project, called the Network for Environmental Sensing and Technology (NEST), are to give municipal emergency managers and the general public access to real-time information from their local communities, while providing researchers with data that can be used to make better predictions about future emergency events. NEST was developed in conjunction with Community-driven Coastal Climate Research and Solutions (3CRS), a projectfunded by the National Science Foundation aimed at addressing climate change related challenges faced by low-lying communities in New England.

“Municipalities across Rhode Island are dealing with the effects of climate change, and many are developing their own climate resilience plans,” said 3CRS principal investigator Emanuele Di Lorenzo, a professor in Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences and an affiliate of the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. “The work we do with 3CRS is to help communities build climate resilience, and NEST is a part of that. We want to provide people with data they need to aid in planning and decision-making around climate-related events.”

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