Disaster risk monitoring
Real-time natural-hazard intelligence
Overview
Real-time monitoring of natural disasters for authorities, citizens and insurers: a dynamic operating picture of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards built from earth-observation and ground data. Decision support for civil-defence agencies before, during and after the event.
A live operating picture of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards: decision support for civil-defence agencies before, during and after the event.
Capabilities
- Real-time monitoring of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards
- Built from earth-observation and ground data
- Serves authorities, citizens and insurers from one picture
- Supports preparation, response and recovery phases
- Buys civil-defence agencies decision time before an event, protecting lives and infrastructure through earlier, better-informed action
- Delivers a sovereign hazard picture drawn from earth-observation and ground data, rather than waiting on a foreign agency's alerting
Specifications
| Type | Disaster risk monitoring |
| Hazards | Cyclones / flooding / coastal |
| Users | Civil defence / authorities / insurers |
| Origin | Independent / non-aligned |
In depth
A live hazard picture
The service monitors cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards in real time. It combines earth-observation data with ground data and presents them as a dynamic operating picture. That picture is intended for authorities, citizens and insurers, giving each audience access to the same hazard situation rather than leaving decisions to disconnected reports.
Decision support through the event
The product supports preparation before a hazard, response during the event and recovery afterward. It gives civil-defence agencies decision time before an event and supports earlier, better-informed action that protects lives and infrastructure. The operating picture is configured against the authority's hazard requirements.
One picture for several users
Authorities can use the operating picture for civil-defence decisions, citizens can use it to understand the hazard, and insurers can use it as part of their view of the event. A national configuration can establish which hazard layers and decision outputs each group is permitted to receive.
Sovereign data for public safety
The hazard picture is drawn from earth-observation and ground data and is sovereign rather than dependent on a foreign agency's alerting. Its configuration can be set for the civil-defence agency responsible for preparation, response and recovery.
Why Unstrat: the difference
Unstrat is the authorised global representative and distributor for this capability. It is already in service with a track record behind it, so you are buying something that has done the job elsewhere, not funding a first attempt. You are not the test bed.
Independent, non-aligned origin, with no political exposure to any major-power ecosystem.
One accountable team from first briefing through delivery and in-region sustainment.
From the data-science team behind the fisheries platforms: earth observation applied to public safety.
How it reaches you
Related capability
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Procurement & sustainment
Classification and the end-user-certificate chain are confirmed before this capability is represented to your market.
Sourced from an independent manufacturer: no major-power disclosure rules or political conditions.
A single team responsible from first briefing through delivery: not a chain of foreign primes to integrate yourself.
Lifecycle support and operator training delivered in-region, building capability that outlasts the initial deployment.
Questions buyers ask
What is disaster risk monitoring?
It is a live picture of a hazard as it develops, built so that authorities can act on it rather than read about it afterwards. Ours covers cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards, assembled from earth-observation and ground data, and it serves authorities, citizens and insurers from the same picture across preparation, response and recovery. The point of the monitoring is decision time: acting a day earlier changes what a civil-defence agency can protect.
What is the best flood monitoring system?
On published performance, ICEYE sets the benchmark: GIS-ready flood extent and depth at building level within hours of a peak, refreshed daily, from a SAR constellation its government page states at 30 or more satellites with four or more daily revisits. If that specific figure is your requirement, ask them. The case for an independent service is scope and control, since ours covers cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards in one picture for authorities, citizens and insurers, and the alerting timetable is not held by a foreign vendor's workflow. We do not publish an hours figure, and our comparison page says so plainly.
What does a flood early warning capability cost?
Nobody in this comparison publishes prices, so treat quoted figures with suspicion. The structures differ and that is what to compare. Planet sells imagery by product and processing level, which leaves the agency funding its own analytics. ICEYE sells finished flood layers routed through its own suite, which moves the analytics cost into a subscription and the dependency to the vendor. Ours is a delivered service with in-region sustainment, and you should ask all three for latency commitments and exit terms before comparing annual numbers.
What are the alternatives to ICEYE Flood Insights?
ICEYE is strong and honest about what it sells: an always-on daily workflow, flood extent and depth at building level, and a service that tells customers which events it is expecting, observing or analysing. That last line is also the dependency, because the events analysed are the events the vendor selects. The alternative is a hazard picture built from earth-observation and ground data for your own civil-defence chain, from an independent, non-aligned supplier. Weigh published hours against control of the schedule.
Flood mapping service for a national disaster management agency
The useful question is what the agency receives, not which satellites are involved. We deliver a live operating picture of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards, spanning preparation, response and recovery, rather than an annual risk study. ICEYE delivers GIS-ready flood layers with building footprints through its own suite. Decide first whether you are buying a data feed to load into your systems or a monitoring service your watch floor runs from.
See: What is delivered, row by rowDisaster risk monitoring product page
Satellite flood monitoring that works through cloud cover
Cyclone flooding happens under cloud, which rules out optical sensing as a primary source in the first day. Planet's own specification is clear about what it sells: PlanetScope at 3.0 to 4.2 m ground sample distance on a sun-synchronous orbit crossing the equator between 7:30 and 11:30 am local solar time, and SkySat at 0.50 m orthorectified. Radar and ground data carry the first 24 hours. Our picture is drawn from earth-observation and ground data together, though we do not publish the sensor list, and our comparison page records that gap.
See: Optical and radar imaging comparedSensing behind each service
Hazard monitoring that authorities and insurers can both use
This is a design decision, not a feature. ICEYE sells government and insurance as separate solutions drawing on the same flood layers, which suits a vendor and complicates a state. Ours serves authorities, citizens and insurers from one picture, so the depth layer a district officer acts on during the event is the layer an insurer prices against afterwards. That matters most in recovery, when arguments about what was flooded and how deep decide who gets paid.
Coastal hazard monitoring for a small island state
Small states carry the highest exposure and the thinnest analyst bench, so the service has to arrive as decisions rather than as raw imagery. Our monitoring covers cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards for authorities, citizens and insurers, with sustainment through one accountable team in region rather than a helpdesk in another hemisphere. Coverage areas and latency are not published on this site, so ask for both in writing before committing.
See: Disaster risk monitoring product pageResilience and civil security
Sovereign hazard picture instead of a foreign data subscription
A subscription gives you the vendor's analysis of the events the vendor selected, on the vendor's refresh cycle, through the vendor's platform. A sovereign picture is built from earth-observation and ground data you specify and delivered into your civil-defence chain, so the country is not waiting on a foreign agency's alerting. The practical test is simple: when two large events land in the same week, who decides which country's analysts get served first?
Our disaster agency waits for a foreign agency's alerts before it can act. What do we buy to run our own hazard picture?
Buy the picture, not the pixels. Imagery alone shifts the analytical burden onto staff you probably do not have, and a finished vendor feed shifts the schedule onto a company in another jurisdiction. Ours is delivered as a live operating picture of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards drawn from earth-observation and ground data, so the alerting decision sits with your civil-defence agency. The capability is run by the same data-science practice that already serves fisheries authorities day to day, applied to public safety.
See: Disaster risk monitoring product pageDependency and schedule control
Can we use high-resolution optical imagery for the first day of a cyclone response?
For recovery and damage assessment, yes, and Planet is good at it: near-daily coverage at 3.7 to 4.2 m and 0.50 m orthorectified pixels from SkySat map what changed. For day one it is the wrong sensor, because a sun-synchronous morning pass through thick cloud tells you very little. Radar, gauges and fused ground data do that job. Do not treat imagery resolution as a proxy for warning time in the specification.
See: Optical resolution in a cycloneOptical against SAR imaging
What happens to our tasking priority when two large disasters overlap and every agency wants the same satellites?
That is the question to ask before signing, and few tenders ask it. ICEYE runs an always-on daily workflow and publishes which events it is expecting, observing or analysing, while Planet images the land surface on a fixed sun-synchronous pattern with SkySat taskable within published pointing limits. Both work well until a queue forms, and priority in that queue is a commercial decision taken outside your capital. Get response times and priority written into the contract, whoever you buy from, including us.
How do we make sure the flood data our district officers act on is the same data insurers use to settle claims?
By buying one picture rather than two products. Splitting government and insurance across separate subscriptions guarantees an argument later about what was flooded and how deep, which is where recovery money is won and lost. Our monitoring is built to serve authorities, citizens and insurers from the same picture across preparation, response and recovery. We do not publish the granularity of the flood layer, so agree the resolution and the format with us in writing before the season starts.
See: One picture for authorities and insurersDisaster risk monitoring product page
What latency and resolution figures does Unstrat publish for disaster monitoring, and what should we demand?
Latency from event onset to first usable product, spatial granularity of the flood layer, revisit rate and the named satellite and ground sources are not published on this site, and the comparison page records each of those as a gap rather than filling it with a number. ICEYE publishes all four in some form, which is the standard to hold us to. Ask for them in writing, ask for the validation behind them, and compare the answer against ICEYE's published hours before deciding.
Is your disaster monitoring an operational service or a research project attached to a fisheries platform?
It runs on the earth-observation and analytics practice that already serves fisheries authorities day to day, applied to public safety, and it is delivered as a live operating picture rather than an annual risk study. The team behind it is supported in its fisheries work by the United Nations World Food Programme, the European Space Agency and the World Bank. Sustainment comes through one accountable team in region, which is the part that matters at three in the morning during a cyclone.
See: Disaster risk monitoring product pageHow the service is delivered against ICEYE and Planet
Disaster risk monitoring: questions
What is Disaster risk monitoring?
Disaster risk monitoring is Unstrat's Sea (Maritime Domain) capability: Real-time monitoring of natural disasters for authorities, citizens and insurers: a dynamic operating picture of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards built from earth-observation and ground data. Decision support for civil-defence agencies before, during and after the event.
How does Disaster risk monitoring work?
Disaster risk monitoring delivers its effect through Real-time monitoring of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards, Built from earth-observation and ground data and Serves authorities, citizens and insurers from one picture, capabilities matched to the requirement and confirmed under briefing rather than published.
Who provides Disaster risk monitoring?
Disaster risk monitoring is delivered by The Ocean Data Specialist, whose focus is fisheries data science & satellite fish detection. Unstrat represents The Ocean Data Specialist to government and enterprise buyers worldwide as an independent, non-aligned prime vendor.
Why choose Disaster risk monitoring over a major-power alternative?
Disaster risk monitoring is sourced from an independent, non-aligned provider, so it carries no major-power disclosure rules, upgrade-locks or political ramifications. Concretely: from the data-science team behind the fisheries platforms: earth observation applied to public safety. The capability is accountable to you, not to a foreign vendor's government and its release schedule.
How is Disaster risk monitoring procured, and where can it be delivered?
A live operating picture of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards: decision support for civil-defence agencies before, during and after the event. Every engagement begins with a briefing, and export eligibility is confirmed per market under briefing rather than published. Where controlled capabilities are involved, the classification and end-user-certificate chain is confirmed first. Disaster risk monitoring is then sustained in-region by one accountable team from briefing through long-term operation.