ICEYE will map the flood. Planet will image the ground. Neither hands a civil-defence agency the picture it has to run the response from.
ICEYE publishes building-level flood depth within hours of a peak, and Planet publishes constellation specifications most governments could not match. Both are foreign-held data utilities, and the alerting timetable belongs to them.
Our disaster monitoring runs on the same earth-observation and analytics practice that already serves fisheries authorities day to day, applied to public safety. It is delivered as a live operating picture for authorities, citizens and insurers across the preparation, response and recovery phases, not as an annual risk study.
Side by side
| Attribute | Represented by UnstratDisaster risk monitoring | ICEYEFlood Insights (government and insurance solutions)123Finland | Planet Labs PBCPlanetScope and SkySat imagery products4United States |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is delivered124 | A live operating picture of cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards for authorities, citizens and insurers, across preparation, response and recovery | GIS-ready flood extent and depth data layers with building footprints, plus a monitoring service telling customers which events ICEYE is expecting, observing or analysing | Imagery products: PlanetScope basic and ortho scenes, mosaic tiles, SkySat basic scenes and video, with defined processing levels |
| Hazards covered24 | Cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards | Flood, with wildfire monitoring offered as a separate product | Not a hazard product; imagery for any application |
| Sensing behind it234Floods arrive under cloud. An optical constellation with a morning equator crossing is a poor primary sensor for the first 24 hours of a cyclone, whatever its resolution. | Earth-observation and ground data | SAR satellites that see through cloud, ash, smoke and darkness, with observational ground truth and third-party datasets; 30+ satellites and 4x or more daily revisits stated on the government page | Optical only. PlanetScope PSB.SD eight-band imager at 3.7 to 4.2 m ground sample distance, sun-synchronous orbit, equator crossing 7:30 to 11:30 am local solar time, daily revisit at nadir; SkySat orthorectified pixel size 0.50 m |
| Time from event to usable product214 | Not published; described as real-time monitoring | Insights within hours of a flood peak, then updated once daily as the flood evolves | Not published as an event latency; revisit is stated as daily at nadir for PlanetScope |
| Granularity of impact data134 | Not published | Flood extent and depth at the individual building level, with maximum extent and depth mapped at building level | 3.0 to 4.2 m ground sample distance for PlanetScope depending on instrument generation; 0.50 m orthorectified pixel for SkySat assets |
| Who the product is built for234 | Authorities, citizens and insurers from one picture | Two separate solutions, one for the public sector and one for re/insurance, both drawing on the same flood data layers | Any imagery customer; no civil-protection workflow published |
| Ground data fused in34 | Earth-observation and ground data combined | Observational ground truth plus terrain, gauge and social data synthesised with SAR | None; imagery products only |
| Analysis published as evidence24 | Not published | Public event briefings, including Cyclone Narelle in Australia and flooding from remnants of Typhoon Halong in Alaska | Product specifications published; no event analysis product |
| Constellation ownership34 | Not published; service delivered from an independent, non-aligned source | ICEYE owns and operates its SAR constellation | Planet owns and operates PlanetScope Dove and SkySat satellites; SkySat design life approximately 6 years |
| Who decides when your country is imaged124Both models work well until two large events overlap and a queue forms. Priority in that queue is a commercial decision taken outside your capital. | A sovereign hazard picture drawn from earth-observation and ground data, rather than waiting on a foreign agency's alerting | ICEYE runs an always-on daily workflow and tells customers which events it is expecting, observing or analysing | PlanetScope images the land surface near-daily on a fixed sun-synchronous pattern; SkySat is taskable within published pointing limits |
| Cost model34 | Not published | Not published; access routed through the ICEYE Solutions Suite | Not published in the product specification |
Competitor values are quoted from the vendor documents listed under Sources, as published on the date shown. Configurations vary, so treat every row as a starting point for the evaluation rather than a like-for-like test result.
What the table means
Give ICEYE its due, then read the dependency.
Flood extent and depth at building level within hours of a peak, updated daily, from a SAR constellation that works through cloud and darkness, is the strongest published offer in this field. A civil-defence agency that buys it gets a real capability quickly. What it does not get is control of the schedule. The events analysed are the events ICEYE expects, observes and chooses to analyse, on an always-on workflow the vendor runs, and access is routed through the vendor's own suite. That is a data utility relationship, and it should be priced and contracted as one, with response times written down.
Optical resolution is the wrong thing to shop for in a cyclone.
Planet publishes numbers few can match: 3.7 to 4.2 m ground sample distance across hundreds of Doves, near-daily coverage of the land surface, 0.50 m orthorectified pixels from SkySat. All of it is optical, on a sun-synchronous orbit crossing the equator between 7:30 and 11:30 in the morning. The first day of a tropical cyclone is cloud, wind and darkness. Planet is a strong recovery and change-detection layer and a weak first-24-hours sensor, and no procurement should treat imagery resolution as a proxy for warning time.
One picture for authorities, citizens and insurers.
ICEYE sells government and insurance separately, which suits a vendor and complicates a state. Our disaster monitoring is built to serve authorities, citizens and insurers from the same picture, so the depth layer a district officer acts on is the layer an insurer later prices against. That matters most in the recovery phase, when arguments about what was flooded and how deep decide who gets paid.
Where our page is thinner than theirs.
ICEYE publishes latency, revisit, constellation size and product granularity. We publish hazards, users and phases. Every cell on this table where we have no number says so. A civil-defence buyer should ask us in writing for latency from event onset to first product, spatial granularity of the flood layer, and which sensors and ground feeds sit behind it, and should hold the answer against ICEYE's published hours.
Questions buyers ask
What is the best alternative to ICEYE Flood Insights for a national civil-defence agency?
ICEYE is the benchmark on published performance: GIS-ready flood extent and depth at building level within hours of a peak, refreshed daily, from a SAR constellation stated at 30 or more satellites with four or more daily revisits. If your requirement is that specific number, ask them first. The alternative case is sovereignty and scope. Our disaster monitoring covers cyclones, flooding and coastal hazards for authorities, citizens and insurers in one picture, from an independent, non-aligned supplier, so the alerting timetable and the operating picture are not held by a foreign vendor's workflow. We do not publish an hours figure, and this comparison says so rather than matching theirs on paper.
Can Planet imagery be used for flood response?
For recovery and damage assessment, yes. PlanetScope gives near-daily coverage at 3.7 to 4.2 m and SkySat delivers 0.50 m orthorectified pixels, which is useful for mapping what changed. For the first day of a flood it is the wrong sensor: PlanetScope is optical on a sun-synchronous orbit crossing the equator between 7:30 and 11:30 am local solar time, and cyclone flooding happens under cloud. Radar, ground gauges and a fused picture do that job. Planet's own product specification is clear about what it sells, which is imagery, not hazard analytics.
How does a sovereign hazard picture differ from buying a commercial flood data feed?
A feed gives you the vendor's analysis of the events the vendor selected, on the vendor's refresh cycle, through the vendor's platform. ICEYE states an always-on daily workflow and tells customers which events it is expecting, observing or analysing, which is honest and also the shape of the dependency. A sovereign picture is built from earth-observation and ground data you specify, delivered to your civil-defence chain, with sustainment through one accountable team. The practical test: when two big events land in the same week, who decides which one your country's analysts see first?
How does cost of ownership compare between ICEYE, Planet and an independent monitoring service?
None of the three publishes prices, so any figure you are shown is someone's guess. The structural differences are documented. Planet sells imagery by product and processing level, which means an agency must fund its own analytics on top. ICEYE sells finished flood layers through its own suite, which shifts the analytics cost to a subscription and the dependency to the vendor. Ours is a delivered service with in-region sustainment. Ask every supplier, including us, for latency commitments and exit terms in writing before comparing annual figures.
Which figures does Unstrat not publish for disaster monitoring?
Latency from event onset to first usable product, spatial granularity of the flood layer, revisit rate, and the named satellite and ground data sources behind the picture. ICEYE publishes all four in some form. Those gaps are recorded on this page and available under a signed enquiry rather than filled with numbers we cannot evidence.
Sources
- 1. ICEYE, Flood Insights: get reliable insights for flood extent and depth within hours of a given flood peak (two-page solution brief, INS US 2024) (copy held on this site)Retrieved: 2026-07-31 · States near real-time flood observation data, flood extent and depth at individual building level, multi-sourced space, aerial and ground analysis, an always-on daily workflow, and the flood monitoring service that tells customers which events ICEYE is expecting, observing or analysing.
- 2. ICEYE, Flood Insights, Government solutionsRetrieved: 2026-07-31 · States GIS-ready flood intelligence within hours with updates once daily as a flood evolves, 30+ satellites with 4x or more daily revisits, SAR imaging through cloud and darkness, wildfire monitoring as a separate product, and published event briefings including Cyclone Narelle and remnants of Typhoon Halong in Alaska.
- 3. ICEYE, Flood Insights, Insurance solutionsRetrieved: 2026-07-31 · States maximum extent and depth mapped at building level, synthesis of SAR, terrain, gauge and social data, 50+ satellites with 4x or more daily revisits, and access routed through the ICEYE Solutions Suite.
- 4. Planet Labs PBC, Planet Imagery Product Specifications, June 2026 (copy held on this site)Retrieved: 2026-07-31 · Table 1-A gives PlanetScope orbit altitude, sun-synchronous mission, equator crossing 7:30 to 11:30 am local solar time, ground sample distance 3.0 to 4.2 m by instrument, daily revisit at nadir and 12-bit depth; Tables 1-B and 1-C give SkySat mass, design life and 0.50 m orthorectified pixel size.