Water, Coasts and Oceans
How is Earth observation used to manage water, coastlines and the oceans, and who pays for it?
Chapter summary
Water is one of the most important and least commercialised uses of satellite data.
Key takeaways
- 1
Governments use satellites to monitor reservoirs, rivers, groundwater, droughts, floods, water quality and coastal erosion; ocean agencies track sea level, temperature, colour and ice.
- 2
Most of this runs on free government missions: Sentinel-3 and Sentinel-6 for oceans, Sentinel-1 and -2 for floods and coasts, Landsat and the US-French SWOT mission for surface water, and GRACE-FO for groundwater.
- 3
Commercial demand comes from water utilities, mining and energy companies managing water risk, insurers pricing flood and drought, and port and coastal infrastructure owners.
Keep reading with Space access
This chapter (452 words) is part of Space & aerospace. Space access opens every chapter of all 11 Space reports, with the interactive models, Excel downloads, Ask and named Atlas records.
- Global Market Analysis: Deep Space Economy
- Space-Based Datacenters: Feasibility Study
- Commercial Space Stations: Feasibility Study
- Defence Space and Missile Defence: Golden Dome and the SDA Architecture
- Launch After Starship: Prices, Capacity and European Sovereign Launch, 2026–2035
- Satellites to Phones: Direct-to-Device Connectivity, Spectrum and Economics, 2026–2035
- Space Supply Chain Bottlenecks: Components, Minerals and Capacity, 2026–2030
- Lunar, Cislunar and Settlement Economics: What the Moon Costs and Who Pays, 2026–2060
- Earth Observation and AI Analytics: What a Square Kilometre Is Worth and Who Captures It, 2026–2035
- In-Space Manufacturing and Microgravity Biotech: Products, Platforms and Economics, 2026–2035
- Space-Based Solar Power: Physics, Costs and the Path to Firm Power from Orbit, 2026–2050
€199 a month or €1,490 a year per sector, after a 7-day free trial. Cancel any time. Need several sectors? All sectors: €999 a month.
Check the live record Space Contracts & Tender Radar · Space Claim Check (free)
Ask about this chapter
Answers drawn from every Setcoin report and the live Atlas. Each statement links to the passage behind it.
Ask is included with every subscription
Cited answers across every report and the Atlas, with follow-up questions and a hand-off to the opportunity finder.
Research for professional investors. Not investment advice, and not an offer of any security or fund interest.