Telespazio UK developed the Rainfall Explorer tool, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA) and used by the World Bank, to help inform how to mitigate against future flood risk.

Since 2008, ESA has worked closely with International Financing Institutions (IFIs) and their client countries to harness the benefits of Earth Observation (EO) data in their operations and resources management. Earth Observation for Sustainable Development (EO4SD) is an ESA initiative that aims to increase the uptake of EO-based information in regular development operations at national and international level.

Telespazio UK is part of the ESA EO4SD Climate Resilience initiative and has developed the Rainfall Explorer tool to help improve the understanding of flood risks associated with extreme precipitation.

This tool helps inform climate resilience strategies to mitigate against future flood risk. Using this tool, users may select past floods or areas/time of interest to obtain rainfall statistics, including the amount of rainfall (mm) recorded five days prior to a flood event, the return period (years) of this extreme event and the amount of expected five-day rainfall for a given return period set by the user.

This information can help understand the relationship between rainfall and resulting flood risk going forward. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), a member of the World Bank Group, has successfully used this tool for several projects.