TRANSPARENT AND RELIABLE AGRICULTURAL INSURANCE
The 2019–20 Australian bushfire season, colloquially known as the Black Summer, had by March, burnt an estimated 18.6 million hectares, and approximately one billion animals. Over the first five months of 2020 the average temperature in Siberia was nearly 10 °C above normal leading to a rapid meltdown of the permafrost and an increase in wildfires. In January, Cyclone Gloria caused destructive flooding by extreme rainfall and a major storm surge across eastern Spain. It was followed by an incredible warm period whilst on the 1st day of February, eastern Spain hit +27 °C! Hailstones as large as 10cm wide fell at a speed of 80-100km/h in Alberta Canada early this June and demolished every crop in their path and caused almost $1.2 billion in insured damage. The violent hailstorm that hit the Fez-Meknes region in Morocco, also this June, affected up to 9,100 hectares agricultural land. China and Japan were also hit by record breaking rainfalls causing floods and landslides, leaving damaged crops for harvest season. These are just some of the recent extreme weather events that show how climate change is multiplying uncertainty for farmers year after year. The objective of BEACON, supported by a research consortium of partners from 4 countries, is to develop a commercial service package that will enable insurance companies to exploit the untapped market potential of Agricultural Insurance, taking advantage of innovations in Earth Observation, weather intelligence and ICT / blockchain technology. BEACON state of the art services are distinguished into 5 categories. Crop Monitoring The BEACON Crop monitoring, using crop growth models, along with Earth Observation and weather data provides crop profiling and monitoring data together with yield estimations. Damage Assessment Calculator The BEACON Damage Assessment Calculator supports Agricultural Insurance companies to more accurately assess and calculate damages for proceeding with indemnity pay-outs of claims. It allows the estimation of crop losses (in quantitative and potentially monetary values) based on in-season yield estimates using Earth Observation and climate data along with crop growth modeling. Weather Risk Probability The BEACON Weather Risk Probability provides probabilities maps of extreme weather events to occur in the upcoming season and to estimate their impact on the potential crop yield. Damage Prognosis - Early Warning The BEACON Damage Prognosis and Early Warning service provides forecasted weather events alerts to Agricultural Insurance providers enabling them to push notifications and predefined mitigation measures to their customers - farmers. Anti-fraud Inspector The BEACON Parcel Anti-Fraud Inspector allows Agricultural Insurances to automatically check the legitimacy of a claim submitted (if actually an event and damage occurred in an insured parcel) and to remotely (using Earth Observation imagery) follow and verify adherence to certain contractual articles established during underwriting. The partners of BEACON project are: KARAVIAS Underwriting Agency (Greece), AGROAPPS PC (Greece), UNIVERSIDAD POLITECNICA DE MADRID (Spain), ETHERISC GMBH (Germany), UNIVERSITY OF BELGRADE FACULTY OF CIVIL ENGINEERING (Serbia), INOSENS DOO NOVI SAD (Serbia) and ΕΤΑΜ SA (Greece). For more information visit the multilingual website https://beacon-h2020.com/(si apre in una nuova finestra) whilst if you have any questions please mail us at info@beacon-h2020.com
