Australia has chosen ICEYE, an expert in natural catastrophe solutions and insights, to amplify its disaster response measures.
The partnership will see ICEYE providing near real-time flood and bushfire data for all states and territories throughout Australia.
The collaboration was motivated by the series of record-breaking flood and bushfire events that many states and territories in Australia have experienced in recent years. These extreme events, often associated with La Ninã or El Niño weather patterns, manifest as either prolonged extreme rainfall or severe droughts. The Treasury highlighted that in 2022, flooding alone affected Australia’s economic activity by around A$5bn.
Diving deeper into the profiles of the two entities, ICEYE is a frontrunner in delivering natural catastrophe solutions. Its strength lies in its fleet of over 25 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites, which positions it ideally to enhance emergency management decisions. The satellites enable the delivery of flood and bushfire insights in almost real-time.
ICEYE’s flagship Flood and Bushfire Insights products employ SAR imagery combined with ground data, generating actionable intelligence. Specifically, ICEYE’s Flood Insights offers an intricate analysis showing structure-level flood extent and depth within a day of the flood peak. On the other hand, their Bushfire Insights provides swift property damage assessments almost instantly during bushfire events. Such data equips emergency responders with insights, allowing them to efficiently allocate resources and enhance recovery for affected communities.
Adding more context to this partnership, it should be noted that this isn’t the first interaction between ICEYE and the Australian Government. The latter has been utilising ICEYE’s Flood Insights product since October 2022.
A spokesperson from ICEYE shed light on the partnership’s importance, “Through this agreement with the Federal Government, ICEYE will contribute directly to efforts to strengthen Australia’s capabilities to manage the impact of flood and bushfire events through rapid disaster assessment and response, better resource allocation and improved coordination between national and local entities.”
Andy Read, Global Head of Government Solutions at ICEYE, voiced his thoughts: “Understanding the true impact of floods and bushfires quickly, can transform response and improve recovery outcomes for survivors. This partnership is about bringing that transformation to federal, state, and territory-level agencies across Australia.”
For the tech enthusiasts, it’s interesting to note that ICEYE’s flood and bushfire data will be made accessible to agencies via ArcGIS, a mapping and analytics software created by Esri.
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