Evaluation of a Satellite Drought Indicator Approach and its Potential for Agricultural Drought Prediction and Crop Loss Assessment. The Case of BEACON Project

BEACON is a market-led project that couples Earth Observation (EO) with weather intelligence and blockchain to deliver a toolbox for timely, costefficient and actionable insights for the Agricultural Insurance (AgI) sector. BEACON enables insurance companies to exploit the untapped market potential of AgI, while contributing to the redefinition of existing products and services. The Damage Assessment Calculator of BEACON employs remote sensing in order to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of agri-insurance by: i) increasing the objectivity of the experts’ field inspections; ii) reducing the cost of field visits and iii) increasing farmers’ confidence in the estimation results. This paper provides an approach that employs a satellite derived agricultural drought indicator, implemented in the operational workflow of BEACON that can be used by AgI companies to improve the prediction and crop loss assessment due to drought.