I-Sea, the startup that monitors climate change from space

It mainly intervenes in three areas of work: coastal hazards (coastline retreat, erosion, problems to which coastal cities are very sensitive), water quality in the marine environment (ports, in particular, may be involved during expansion projects) and biodiversity (the I-Sea, among others, creates maps of the natural heritage of plants for five years).

Spotlight

In this last part, for example, Métropole called on the company to allow a better characterization of what the region’s green consisted of.

Another project to bring local communities together, as part of the “Million Trees” programme. Using aerial and satellite imagery, the system developed by I-Sea automatically calculates planted trees and provides an accurate and up-to-date inventory. It is sufficient to monitor their health and assess their survival rate.

In 2019, the company won the European Space Agency (ESA) tender with a budget of 1.5 million euros over three years. A real spotlight that allowed I-Sea to take off. The European Space Agency wanted to structure knowledge of coastal hazards using satellite data and was looking for a company to lead Space for Shore, a consortium of 10 European companies and universities.

“We are all oceanographers who specialize in environmental monitoring and monitoring of coastal issues and, more broadly, water and biodiversity management services,” summarizes Aurélie Dehouck, co-founder of I-Sea. We rely on satellite data that can be accessed free of charge thanks to Copernicus And we turn it into information that can help manage the coast. »