In Europe, floods are the most frequent type of natural disaster accounting for the vast majority of natural disaster-related insurance claims. The annual economic losses in the EU amount to approximately EUR 5 billion and – according to the European Commission’s research – are expected to have a five-fold increase by 2050 due to human activity and climate change.
For authorities involved in flood risk management, the availability of timely and reliable information to enable informed decisions for prevention and response is critical. Satellite-derived information can be a valuable source of flood risk mapping, flood forecasting and flood extent mapping and damage assessment.
During the winter 2015-2016, Ireland was hit by a succession of Atlantic storms which resulted in the heaviest flooding in the country’s history. In response to the flooding, for the first time, the Irish flood management authorities triggered the Copernicus Emergency Management Service (EMS) in December 2015. Using Sentinel-1 and other satellite data, this service provided all actors involved in flood management with flood delineation maps.
The Irish national coordination authorities now use these flood delineation maps to activate the national emergency management mechanism and coordinate response efforts. These maps help to monitor the development of flood events and dispatch any available information involved to government agencies and departments. Flood delineation maps have enabled informed decision-making and produced significant economic and social benefits for all those involved in flood management, from the national coordination level down to individual citizens. The case study finds that that the use of Copernicus EMS flood delineation maps produced using Sentinel (and other satellites) resulted in an economic benefit of the order of EUR 17.1 million plus an ongoing benefit of EUR 1.1 million per year from 2016 up to 2048.
The study distinguishes between tangible and intangible impacts. Tangible impacts are those readily measured in monetary terms associated with a direct consequence of flooding such as loss of lives and damage to property, loss of livelihoods and decreased purchasing and production power. Intangible impacts are not easily measured in monetary terms and not clearly attributable to a flood events which include for example, loss, stress and anxiety, environmental impacts and long term health effects.
The study sheds light on benefits that could come for business and innovation from the availability of full, free, and open Sentinel data. For companies and institutions that are service providers for the Copernicus EMS service, they have developed strong competences that make their value proposition at a global scale very competitive. The study gives the example of, e-GEOS, the prime contractor of Copernicus EMS Rapid Mapping, that was in the process of supplying “EMS-like” services to the Australian government.
The authors also identify the opportunities for the SME MapAlerter – already operationally supporting emergency management in the country –that could strongly benefit from the availability of both the Sentinel data and the flood delineation maps to provide added value services to local authorities in and possibly beyond Ireland.
The study finds that all those interviewed involved in flood management from a national, regional, and local level were all “unequivocally convinced” about the great value of using flood delineation maps from satellite data. However, the authors explain that the complexity of flood management makes economic calculations particularly difficult.
Here is a short summary of quantified benefits identified in the report:
Avoided costs – the study estimates costs saved from using satellite data rather than the “equivalent” use of aircraft to produce aerial photogrammetry maps, over the same area and period of 38 days that EMS was activated during the Winter of 2015/16, would be approximately EUR 3.6 million.
Sentinel-related better investment decisions – the authors calculated the average yearly benefit of better decision making resulting from the availability of satellite data to be EUR 0.61 million per year (EUR 20.2 million divided by 33 years for the period 2016-2048).
Reduced damages – the authors estimate that the avoided damages related to the availability of the flood delineation maps powered by Sentinel (and other satellites) data is at least EUR 2 million, possibly up to EUR 17 million, and likely around EUR 10 million.
Sentinel-related avoided welfare-costs from road disruptions – for the specific case of Ireland winter flooding in 2015/16 the authors estimate an avoided welfare cost of about EUR 3.9 million.
In conclusion, looking at the “medium” scenario, the authors conclude that the use of Copernicus EMS flood delineation maps produced using Sentinel (and other satellites) resulted in an economic benefit for the case of ‘Flood management in Ireland’ of the order of EUR 17.1 million plus an ongoing benefit of EUR 1.1 million per year from 2016 up to 2048.
Find this article at:
https://earsc.org/sebs/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Flood-management-Ireland-Full-case.pdf
This case study, undertaken by the European Association of Remote Sensing Companies (EARSC), is one in a series of case studies from the Sentinel Economic Benefits Study (SEBS) – a large study to show how Earth Observation (EO) derived products and services, based on data generated by one or more Sentinel satellites, deliver value to society and citizens.