Environmental consultancy, GeoSmart, has been awarded £42,544 from the UK Space Agency to explore how satellite technology can help water resource management and disaster mitigation.

The Shrewsbury-based consultancy is one of 10 organisations to win up to £55,000 funding each to produce forecasts and models that can be used in agriculture, energy, finance and insurance.

Paul Drury, director of product development at GeoSmart, said: “This funding will help us to further leverage the benefits of using space-derived data to improve our existing products and to support in our innovation of new technologies that support water resource management.

“Water is a critical resource that is in high demand and in the future pressures on our water supply will increase through growing populations and the impacts of climate change. It’s important that the wealth of data derived from satellites is used for the benefit of our environment and society. Our work has the potential to improve the services we offer to UK water companies and across other markets, such as the financial sector, that have traditionally faced operational challenges in deriving benefits from space data."

Dr Paul Bate, chief executive of the UK Space Agency, added: “The UK has a long history of expertise and innovation in Earth observation, developing satellites to collect increasingly detailed data and using that information to build services that help protect our planet.

“This targeted funding for early-stage innovations is all about supporting fresh ideas and accelerating the rollout of powerful new tools that have the potential to bring benefits to a wide range of users both within and beyond the space sector."

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