Given that nearly one-third of the world's population is exposed to flood risk, and flood is by far the most frequently occurring natural hazard, the peril is a key topic for re/insurers.

In the UK, alone, it has been predicted the cost of severe UK flood events could rise 42% to £5bn ($6bn) by 2050 in an intermediate emissions scenario.

Obtaining flood hazard data can also be difficult due to the nature of the risk in which reliable, actionable and timely insights are hard to produce.

ICEYE's flood insights product aim to bridge these data gaps by providing re/insurers with perspective on flood events as they happen using high-resolution hazard data.

The natural catastrophe data provider says it was the first commercial organisation to successfully launch synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, and the provider says it owns and operates the largest global SAR satellite constellation.

By 2022, ICEYE had monitored over 460 potential floods worldwide and conducted detailed flood analysis on 48 significant events using the satellite system.

This delivers a level of hazard granularity and within timeframes that have never been possible before, ICEYE says. The player has also established data partnerships with several insurance market participants including, Neptune Flood and Tokio Marine.

Commending ICEYE's capabilities, the judges said the offering is truly innovative and can make a real difference in responding to flood loss events on a large scale.

Looking ahead, a spokesperson for ICEYE says it is currently expanding the potential of its flood insights product and is developing a flood early warning solution to provide pre-flood intelligence that includes predicted location, likelihood, and intensity.