Climate change is leading to an unprecedented increase in extreme rainfall events and flooding. Between 2014 and 2023, flood losses across the Nordic regions have increased by 22% and 54% of these losses have been caused by extreme rainfall, causing a challenging situation for insurance companies and policyholders. Norwegian company Mitigrate have developed a service under ESA’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) Programme, which not only assesses flood risk but uses satellite data to enhance climate adaptation and reduce damage to properties through sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) and Property Flood Resilience (PFR) measures.

Many insurers assess flood risk and then increase premiums; Mitigrate aims to reduce the risk and make buildings and communities become more resilient over time. This holistic approach goes beyond risk assessment to recommending PFRs and SuDS for individual properties to mitigate flood damage in a cost-effective way. Encouraging the adoption of SuDS also demonstrates the insurance sector’s commitment to environmental responsibility and contributes to a greener future as the service is aligned to the EU Taxonomy and Sustainable Activities Goals. The additional environmental benefits of using SuDS, such as increasing biodiversity or improving air quality, are also highlighted in the system’s reports.

The Mitigrate service is primarily aimed at the general insurer market, covering underwriters, claim handlers, risk management teams, re-insurance purchasing professionals, and sustainability teams. The company has worked with 20 different insurers to understand their specific needs and requirements, and this has informed the development of the Mitigrate platform. The system can now analyse individual addresses and determine the risk level for each building, customising recommendations to meet the unique needs of each property.  This eliminates the need for costly on-site visits to discuss flood risk reduction and significantly lowers annual losses from floods for insurers. Mitigrate’s solution reduces the flood risk for customers and boosts customer satisfaction and retention, creating a sustainable business model by fostering resilient communities.

“Access to space technology and support through the BASS programme has been instrumental in accelerating our product innovation,” said Laurent Feuilleaubois, CEO of Mitigrate. “By integrating satellite data and advanced analytics, we’ve created a scalable service that not only enables insurers to manage flood risk more effectively, but also opens the door to new markets and customer segments. ESA’s backing gave us the confidence—and the tools—to move faster, build smarter, and deliver real value to the insurance industry.”

The Mitigrate service leverages satellite imagery and digital twins to assess the most appropriate SuDS and PFRs for an individual property, based on the size and suitability of the site and the amount of surface water the building needs to be able to cope with. The service utilises high-, and low-resolution spatial data, which is combined with machine learning, to minimise data costs without reducing the quality of the applicability maps generated. A range of sustainable drainage systems and property flood resilience measures are recommended to prevent future damage and rebuilding costs, including garden ponds to store rainwater, green roofs, bio-retention areas, rain gardens, pervious pavements and wet flood-proofing.

"Mitigrate offers a unique service supporting both insurers and policyholders by helping to reduce the risk of damage from flooding and improve insurability of properties” said Christopher Frost-Tesfaye, Project Manager at ESA. “We are proud to support Mitigrate and their innovative response to the challenges of flood risk."

Mitigrate worked with two insurers during the activity, testing the platform and expanding their service to the ten largest cities in Norway. This has resulted in a three-year commercial contract with Norwegian insurer Gjensidige, and discussions are underway with other companies in the Nordics, the UK and Germany. Mitigrate already covers 35 million properties in Norway and the UK and the platform is ready to scale across the Nordic regions and beyond.

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Climate change and the degradation of biodiversity call for urgent measures to effectively protect and restore ecosystems, and to build new more sustainable infrastructures. The World Economic Forum Global Risk Report 2024 cites biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse as one of the top three risks to the global economy, with half of global GDP ($44 trillion) nature-dependent at least to some extent. Addressing this, UK-based company Gentian, supported by the European Space Agency’s Business Applications and Space Solutions (BASS) programme, has developed a pioneering biodiversity monitoring solution that harnesses very high-resolution satellite imagery, including multispectral and radar data, combined with AI analytics.  

The Gentian application addresses the global biodiversity crisis and the need for high-quality data to protect and restore natural habitats. This space-enabled approach delivers fast, accurate, and repeatable biodiversity insights at a scale and frequency not possible with traditional survey methods—cutting both costs and time dramatically. 

The innovative combination of satellite data with machine learning allows for consistent long-term monitoring.  This capability is essential for tracking habitat changes over time - something that it is difficult to achieve with in-situ field surveys.  

Using satellite data addresses the challenges with current data gathering methods by giving Gentian the following capabilities: 

• Ability to cover remote and inaccessible areas 
• Ability to cover large areas in a short time frame 
• Repeat coverage for consistent monitoring 
• Uniform data quality across all regions 
• Year round, timely insights 

Example of a Gentian True Sight habitat map, showing habitat types and the biodiversity value for a 1-hectare site in the UK.

The early stages of the project confirmed the commercial viability of Gentian’s solutions, with multiple successful engagements and ongoing discussions for further adoption. Key sectors, including local authorities, landowners, redevelopment companies and renewable energy companies, have shown strong interest in using the solution for environmental assessment and sustainability reporting, reinforcing the value of remote ecological insights in regulatory compliance, risk management and conservation initiatives.  

Gentian’s vision is to make valuable nature data accessible to all, providing quantified data that is compatible with science-based targets and most reporting frameworks. The easy-to-use software allows customers to select an area of interest and receive back a clear report showing the biodiversity value and features of interest within the area and a buffer zone if applicable. The platform is available as a pay-as-you-go service or as a subscription model. 

Within the scope of the ESA Demonstration Pilot, Gentian was able to validate the product-market fit for these data services.   

“Space data is the key to unlocking biodiversity monitoring at global scale.” said Karen Day, COO at Gentian. “ESA’s Earth Observation missions, such as the Copernicus Sentinel satellites, provide a vital foundation of consistent, repeatable imagery. When combined with other commercial data sources and Gentian’s AI analysis, it becomes possible to deliver fast, reliable habitat insights anywhere — from a single hectare plot to an entire country — without the limitations or access issues that can make in situ surveys difficult to scale.”  

“It is fantastic to be able to support companies such as Gentian deliver ground-breaking solutions to help solve real, urgent challenges relating to climate change,” says ESA BASS Business Applications Officer Guillaume Prigent. “This is what the ESA BASS programme is all about – making space technology accessible to innovative businesses, not only to develop commercially successful new products and services that have a positive impact on the environment, but ultimately to help underpin European prosperity and resilience in the long-run.”  

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"Gentian is a very unique company, not only because they handle data with high precision (<50 cm resolution), which has been difficult to achieve with conventional remote sensing technology, but also because of their deep expertise in ecology."

Sho Ito, Sustainability Consultant

MS&AD

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