Planet’s Expanded Contract with Government of New South Wales Supports Emergency and Climate Change Response

Planet Labs PBC (NYSE: PL), a leading provider of daily data and insights about Earth, recently expanded its contract with the Government of New South Wales, Australia (NSW) through partner NGIS to support crisis response and urban planning and biodiversity management. NSW has been an early adopter of Planet data, using it for critical applications such as flood disaster response, water resource management, and wildfire response.

In recent years, Australia has faced a number of challenges connected to climate change. Due to extreme weather brought on by a multi-year La Niña event, Australia has experienced severe flooding during the last two years. Planet’s satellites have tracked these natural disasters, helping to inform the media and support partners in the region. Through NGIS, our satellite imagery has helped provide a safe and swift way for the New South Wales State Government Agencies and Local Councils to gain situational awareness over flooded areas and make timely decisions.

“By using Planet’s data, we have been able to gather bird’s eye views of critical situations, like the flooding we experienced at the beginning of the year. This allowed us to quickly analyze the immediate impacts of the disaster on communities and infrastructure,” said Glenda Dunn, NSW’s Central Darling Council.

The Government of NSW is also using Planet data to monitor water consumption across the state, watching for the effectiveness of water restrictions, license and planning conditions; ensuring a fair distribution of water resources during drought conditions and tracking individual compliance. NSW found Planet’s imagery archive of proprietary datasets going back to 2009 particularly useful, enabling them to look at the historical impact of environmental events.

Through this expansion, the Government of NSW is also leveraging Planet’s SkySat data to inform sustainable housing development. With this data, they are evaluating vegetation change over time in developing regions, identifying areas for restoration, creating koala corridor maps for protection, and issuing sustainable housing permits.

This expansion will continue to support NSW’s work in emergency and natural resource management, sustainable development, and help regulate various state-level industries.