Objectives of the service
EO-INSURE addresses persistent limitations in agricultural insurance related to crop damage assessment and post-event verification.
Insurance companies, brokers and reinsurers operate in an increasingly complex context characterised by more frequent extreme weather events, high costs of field inspections, limited accessibility to affected areas and uncertainty in parametric insurance outcomes.
The service provides objective, scalable and ex-post analytical information based on Earth Observation data to support insurance decision-making. By combining multi-temporal Sentinel-1 radar and Sentinel-2 optical imagery with meteorological and field-level information, EO-INSURE generates field-scale damage probability maps, crop-condition time series and historical damage datasets.
These outputs support the verification of whether insured events effectively result in crop damage, enable the distinction between event-related impacts and pre-existing conditions, and improve the reliability of parametric trigger definition. The activity focuses on demonstrating the technical and economic feasibility of integrating satellite-derived indicators into existing insurance workflows.
EO-INSURE supports more transparent claims verification, reduces disputes and , mitigates opportunistic claims and strengthens portfolio-level risk analysis for agricultural insurers operating in climate-sensitive markets.
Users and their needs
EO-INSURE targets user currently active in the agricultural insurance sector. The users involved in the activity include agricultural insurance companies, insurance brokers, as well as reinsurance actors.
These users are directly involved in crop damage assessment, claims verification, parametric insurance validation and portfolio risk management following extreme weather events. The service is designed to support existing operational workflows by providing objective, ex-post information at field and portfolio scale.
The main user needs identified through the activity include:
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objective verification that insured events effectively result in crop damage at field level
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reliable damage assessment in large, fragmented or physically inaccessible agricultural areas
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distinction between event-related damage and pre-existing crop conditions
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consideration of crop phenology and within-field variability when assessing losses
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access to consistent historical damage information to support pricing, portfolio analysis and parametric trigger definition
The main challenges for the project are to ensure the reliability and interpretability of satellite-derived outputs, to integrate the service into existing insurance workflows, and to deliver evidence that is transparent within regulated insurance and claims-management processes.
The targeted users are primarily operating in Italy and Southern European countries, where agricultural insurance markets are highly exposed to climate-related risks and characterised by complex claims-management and verification processes.
Service/ system concept
EO-INSURE supplies insurance stakeholders with objective, field-level information to support crop damage assessment and post-event insurance decisions. The service delivers damage probability maps, crop-condition summaries and historical damage indicators that describe whether and where insured events have effectively impacted agricultural fields.
When the service is deployed, users gain the ability to review crop damage remotely, compare conditions before and after an insured event, and assess damage consistently across large portfolios. This supports claims verification, parametric trigger validation, damage attribution and portfolio-level risk analysis without relying exclusively on field inspections.
The system works by combining satellite observations with weather information and insured field boundaries. Satellite images collected over time are analyzed to track changes in crop conditions. These changes are compared with reference conditions to identify anomalies consistent with damage caused by extreme weather events. The results are translated into clear, easy-to-interpret indicators and maps.
At a high level, the system architecture consists of three main elements: data inputs (satellite imagery, weather data and field information), an analytical processing layer that evaluates crop condition changes over time, and an output layer that delivers maps and summaries through visual dashboards or data interfaces suitable for integration into insurance workflows.
Space Added Value
EO-INSURE exploits European Earth Observation assets, primarily Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 satellites, to deliver objective and scalable information for agricultural insurance applications. These space assets provide systematic, repeatable and wide-area observations that cannot be achieved through traditional ground-based methods alone.
Sentinel-2 optical imagery captures changes in vegetation condition related to crop stress and damage, while Sentinel-1 radar imagery ensures continuity of observations independently of cloud cover and illumination conditions. This capability is particularly critical because damaging weather events such as hail, frost and heavy rainfall often coincide with persistent cloud cover, when optical observations alone are unavailable. The combined use of radar and optical data therefore ensures more reliable and timely damage detection.
Compared to traditional approaches based on field inspections, farmer declarations or weather-only indicators, the use of satellite data enables consistent assessment across large and fragmented agricultural areas, including locations that are difficult or unsafe to access. It also allows the generation of comparable historical datasets over multiple seasons.
By combining multiple space assets, EO-INSURE reduces uncertainty in damage assessment, improves the validation of parametric insurance triggers and supports transparent, evidence-based insurance decisions at both field and portfolio level.
Current Status
The EO-INSURE Kick Start activity has been successfully concluded after six months.
Throughout the activity, two user engagement cycles were carried out with insurance companies, brokers, risk-management experts and adjusters. Around 9 stakeholders participated through individual online interviews and 18 through the survey. First interview cycle focused on understanding current insurance workflows and identifying key limitations in crop damage assessment and parametric insurance validation. These insights were used to define the service concept and design an initial interface mockup.
The second cycle, with interview and survey, focused on validating the mockup and confirming the relevance of the proposed functionalities within operational insurance processes.
In parallel, technical feasibility activities produced initial satellite-based damage analysis outputs, demonstrating the applicability of the proposed approach. The commercial viability of the service was also assessed and confirmed.
