Impact Observatory Leverages Planet Data and AI to Deliver Insights to U.S. Local and National Government

Traditionally, identifying patterns of change on land has been expensive, complex, and labor-intensive, making it difficult to scale to the vast amount of available satellite imagery. To address this challenge, Planet partner Impact Observatory has developed AI-powered geospatial monitoring tools that help decision-makers understand risks and anticipate changes at unprecedented speed and scale.

“Impact Observatory works with the U.S. government and with state and local governments, to help them understand the threats and risks of climate change and natural disasters,” said Steve Brumby, CEO of Impact Observatory. “Planet data provides a unique capability to understand how the world is changing and allow people to anticipate the worst effects and plan to intervene in time to help save lives.”

Beyond disaster response, Impact Observatory also monitors a growing range of land cover types to provide insights into defense and intelligence, urban development, natural resource management, and agriculture. Their land cover solution, IO Monitor, detects change and patterns that enable data-driven decisions with an up-to-date understanding of any place on Earth.

Situational Awareness Powered by Living Maps

Human populations and vegetation states are constantly changing and moving. Impact Observatory provides ground teams with living maps that help them understand these changes. When natural disasters strike, access to the latest maps is invaluable for supporting humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations.

“The U.S. government came to us and asked us for help making maps of the counties in Florida that were about to be hit by Hurricane Idalia,” Brumby shared. “The official map of the United States, made by the federal government, is three years old. And a thousand people a day move to Florida.”

As emergency response teams mobilized to enter the areas where the Category 4 hurricane was expected to hit, they required accurate, up-to-date information about the situation on the ground, including human population counts and locations. National assets alone couldn’t provide this data. Within 24 hours, Impact Observatory delivered a living map to the U.S. government, leveraging PlanetScope’s approximately 3 m resolution imagery and AI. These living maps were crucial for confirming and prioritizing evacuation plans and search-and-rescue efforts.

A Partnership Empowering Global Decision-Makers

The partnership between Planet and Impact Observatory accelerates awareness and reduces response times for emergency situations and climate risks. It provides governments, non-profits, companies, and markets with clear, current sustainability and environmental risk analyses for any place on Earth.

Impact Observatory continues to innovate, expanding their land-cover categories with PlanetScope imagery to give decision-makers the precise information they need, when they need it. “We use Planet imagery because, in our opinion, Planet is the first and the best space constellation for producing a picture of the world,” Brumby emphasized.

Watch the accompanying video to hear more from Steve Brumby on how this partnership is making a difference: