ICEYE is offering predictive flood modelling to insurers, governments and emergency management in the US under a new partnership.

Research body the Water Institute’s FloodID tool will add intelligence capabilities to ICEYE’s established satellite-based flood observation and early warning.

Developed to support emergency managers in Louisiana, the platform combines physics-based hydrologic modelling, AI, Earth observation data and computing to help organisations anticipate how flood events will evolve.

Denver-based Hugh Roberts, who has spent more than seven years at the Water Institute, has been appointed ICEYE head of predictive intelligence.

“By combining predictive hydrologic intelligence with ICEYE’s unparalleled [synthetic aperture radar] intelligence and global operational platform, we can deliver more comprehensive decision support that helps organisations prepare earlier, respond faster and recover more effectively,” he said.

FloodID adds place-specific modelling, and decision-makers see an updated picture of how a flood is developing, refined throughout the event as new observations arrive.

“FloodID was born out of Louisiana’s flood challenges ... Through our partnership with ICEYE, that innovation now has the opportunity to reach more communities at the critical moments when better information can make all the difference," Water Institute CEO Beaux Jones said.

The collaboration was supported by an Amazon grant, and Amazon disaster relief technology and innovation lead Jeffrey Schweitzer says it will help communities in many states be ready before water rises.

“From Louisiana to Texas and beyond, we’ve watched flooding become harder to predict: atmospheric rivers dropping 30 inches [762mm] of rain, storm surge colliding with inland flooding, and thousand-year floods arriving with unsettling frequency,” he said.