How Technology Transforms Natural Disaster Risk Management
“New Tech for NatCat: Unlocking the Power of Remote Sensing & Artificial Intelligence to Anticipate and Mitigate Natural Disaster”.
This report, published in 2025, brings together leading scientists supported by the science philanthropy of AXA, practitioners and decision makers from public institutions and AXA experts, to demonstrate how AI and remote sensing are already reshaping how we manage natural catastrophe risk, and how much further we can go.
The publication showcases how satellite imagery, LiDAR, drones, and advanced AI models are shifting our approach from reactive response to proactive prevention. It highlights concrete use-cases worldwide, from coastal erosion and wildfires to floods, storms, tsunamis, and dust events, and examines what is needed to scale these solutions responsibly.
From Better Hazard Understanding to Impact Forecasting
Revolutionizing Risk Assessment with New Technologies
In the first chapter, we explore how remote sensing and AI are transforming the way researchers assess hazards, exposure, and vulnerability. Contributions from academic and AXA experts explain how these technologies improve accuracy and timeliness of risk assessments, capture climate-driven dynamics like shifting coastlines and evolving storm patterns, and fill critical data gaps, particularly in regions where local measurements are scarce. This shift underpins a move from static, backward-looking models to dynamic, forward-looking risk assessments.
Moving from Hazard to Impact Forecasting
The second chapter examines the transition from hazard prediction to impact forecasting. By combining Earth observation, AI, and impact models we can predict not only where and when an event may occur, but also who and what will be affected. This allows more targeted evacuations, better emergency planning, and resource allocation, ultimately reducing losses through early action.
Strengthening Early Warning Systems and Societal Resilience
Enhancing Alerts with New Data and Models
Chapter three examines how AI and remote sensing improve early warning systems for hazards such as tsunamis and dust storms. By integrating multiple data sources and automating analysis, these systems deliver faster, more reliable alerts, supporting decision-makers under time pressure.
Supporting Risk Managers, Humanitarians, and Insurers
The final chapter looks at societal risk management, highlighting new seismic risk approaches that improve protection standards, AI‑enhanced flood and cyclone forecasts designed for humanitarians in the field, and the use of remote sensing and AI within AXA to strengthen catastrophe risk modeling, support underwriting, and transform post‑disaster claims management.
Throughout the report, key challenges such as data quality, access, model robustness, satellites miniaturization, governance, and ethics are addressed, as well as the conditions needed to keep the world insurable in the face of escalating risks.
By convening a global network of experts and sharing their insights, we help accelerate the adoption of data-driven, preventive approaches to natural catastrophe risk. “New Tech for NatCat” is both a state-of-the-art overview and a call to action for public authorities, businesses, and communities to harness technology for a safer, more resilient future.