News coverage of extreme weather events and flooding has brought climate change to the forefront of public consciousness. As this flooding displaces and endangers life on Earth and causes trillions of dollars worth of damage to the larger economy, the flood insurance industry finds itself on the forefront of a serious problem that requires it to evolve the way it utilizes data quickly to save both itself and the well-being of its customers.

In comes Cloud to Street — a company that is utilizing satellite imagery and data and integrating it with data on the ground to more accurately calculate flooding risks so that insurers, industries, and governments can take a proactive approach to insurance. Co-founded by friends with extensive backgrounds in hydrology and communication psychology research, Cloud to Street is enabling the parametric insurance model commonly used for hurricane insurance to the flood insurance world.

Cloud to Street co-founder and CEO Bessie Schwarz joins us on this episode of On Orbit to explain how parametric insurance data works and how satellite data plays a key role in its collection. We also talk about the psychology involved in one of the most common challenges faced by space data solutions providers — how do you translate space data in a way that snaps clients into action? What does ‘actionable’ data look like?