Planet Partners with the UAE Space Agency on Climate Resilience Database

The initiative aims to provide data to a select country facing high degrees of climate risk to help build resilience, make informed policy decisions, and stimulate financial programs for climate adaptation and mitigation.

The data facility plans to initially focus on compiling data for a select climate-vulnerable country for purposes of quantifying damages caused by extreme weather events, such as floods and drought and helping to establish early-warning systems.

With access to high-frequency, high-resolution satellite data and analytical tools, the goal is to make these foundational datasets available to governments, NGOs, and related parties so that they can develop insights on climate-related topics like population distribution, wildfire and flood risks, agricultural productivity and food security, and physical assets.

Planet is set to provide key data assets and capabilities for this atlas, including:

• Access to PlanetScope satellite data for the exemplary country, to leverage a near-daily country-level imagery scan, at 3 meter resolution, and see gradual change happening, such as coastal erosion.
• SkySat  Tasking capabilities, to identify specific areas of interest and capture fine details, at 50 centimeter resolution, of swiftly changing events, such as the immediate impacts of flooding damage.
• Use of the Roads and Building Change Detection analytics feed, to receive AI-enhanced insights on rapid urban growth in regions facing climate risk.
• Access to the Soil Moisture Content Planetary Variables data feed, to monitor near-daily changes in soil moisture, at 100 meters per pixel, in regions such as agricultural lands threatened by drought.
• Insights from the Land Surface Temperature Planetary Variables data feed, to illuminate temperature fluctuations over time, such as climate change-induced rising urban and rural heat.
• With partners, provide technical training and engagement with end-user organizations, through webinars, on-site training, and engagement with local universities and academic partners to ensure the data is used effectively.

This project was conceived in response to several COP27 (the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference) initiatives, including the decision to accelerate the implementation of the Warsaw International Mechanism for Loss and Damage where developed nations have been urged to extend financial aid, technology, and expertise to developing countries to tackle the loss and damage resulting from climate change. Additionally, the atlas’s Early Warning Systems for All objectives align with the World Meteorological Organization’s  initiative, aiming to enhance the availability and accessibility of early warning systems for hazards such as extreme weather, water, and climate-related events in climate-vulnerable countries.