Transforming Disaster Preparedness in the Dominican Republic
Earthpulse
Earthpulse is a space-enabled risk intelligence platform that helps governments and institutions understand, anticipate and reduce the impacts of natural hazards. By combining satellite Earth Observation with local data, advanced modelling and on-the-ground knowledge, Earthpulse transforms fragmented information into clear, actionable insights for prevention, preparedness and resilience planning.
The challenge
In the Dominican Republic, extreme events are becoming more frequent and severe, driven by recurrent Atlantic storms, steep terrain and highly variable rainfall. Yet despite decades of emergencies, the national understanding of flood and landslide risk remained fragmented, with no comprehensive flood history, incomplete landslide records, limited high-resolution rainfall data and scattered local datasets. This lack of a clear risk baseline has kept prevention largely reactive, making it difficult for authorities to anticipate where impacts will occur and to plan effective long-term resilience strategies.
The satellite solution
Earthpulse uses Earth Observation to provide governments with continuous, objective and country-wide visibility of risk, including during extreme weather and in hard-to-access areas. Radar satellites can see through clouds, which is critical during storms, while EO data allow authorities to reconstruct past events, monitor current conditions and anticipate future hazards by tracking changes in water, soil moisture, vegetation and terrain stability. When combined with local rainfall measurements, terrain models and socioeconomic data, this approach delivers a more complete and reliable picture of risk, reducing uncertainty and supporting better-targeted prevention efforts.
In the Dominican Republic, this solution transformed fragmented and incomplete information into a coherent national risk baseline. Satellite data were used to build the country’s first flood and landslide inventories, develop risk maps for critical infrastructure, and model where future events are most likely to occur, including under climate change scenarios—laying the groundwork for an EO-enabled Early Warning System.
The work was commissioned by the World Bank under ESA’s GDA Fast EO Co-Financing Facility, ensuring alignment with national priorities and coordination across institutions. ESA provided the Earth Observation framework, tools and data access, while International Financing Institutions such as the World Bank helped bridge EO innovation and national resilience planning. The solution was developed in two phases: first, rebuilding the missing baseline, and second, translating insights into operational, scalable risk tools the government can expand over time.
The results
- Faster prevention: Authorities now see where risks concentrate before disasters hit.
- Better planning: Infrastructure, housing, and emergency budgets can be prioritised transparently.
- A living framework: Every new satellite image or rainfall event strengthens the national risk model.
- Supports early warning: The foundation is now in place for alerts rooted in evidence, not guesswork.
- Scalable region-wide: The same approach works for other Caribbean nations with similar pressures.