Satellites for faster and more accurate disaster relief payouts

How disaster relief agencies and insurance providers can leverage satellite intelligence to deploy payouts to aquaculture farmers more quickly and accurately.

Aquaculture farms are commonly located in low-lying coastal areas, and are vulnerable to damage by floods. Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of catastrophic flood events, and so it is vital to rapidly and accurately determine crop loss so that farmers can receive relief aid.

Satellite observations can quickly determine the stage of production for active ponds at the time of flooding. This enables disaster relief agencies and insurance providers to deploy payouts more quickly and accurately (more accurate payouts means more farmers can receive aid).

A farm inundated by Cyclone Yaas in May 2021. Odisha State, India.

In this shrimp farm example, 9 ponds were inactive and 15 ponds were active when Cyclone Yaas flooded the farm. Based on historic observations we determine that the active ponds were in late stage of production (~103 days of culture).

Satellite observations reveal 9 ponds were inactive (red) and 15 ponds became active (blue) in February 2021.

Without satellite intelligence, the stage of production would have to be guessed, and the number of active ponds would not be known. The difference: a 30% more accurate crop loss estimate (13 vs. 9 hectares of ponds inundated, and 64 vs. 46 mt of lost crop).

About Sea Warden
Our mission is to advance the sustainability of farmed seafood by addressing critical data gaps within the aquaculture industry by leveraging satellites, AI, and cloud computing to map and monitor global aquaculture activity. Find out more at seawarden.io

Acknowledgements
We thank Odisha WorldFish Project for their support.