Leaders In Climate Risk Management

Executive Global: What are the main challenges associated with climate risk modelling and finding sustainable long-lasting solutions for water-related hazards? 

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Guy Schumann: Climate risk modelling faces severe challenges, due to unprecedented meteorological non-stationarity that breaks historical baseline assumptions. Designing sustainable, long-lasting solutions requires overcoming sparse in-situ data networks and bridging the gap between high-resolution hydrodynamic physics and rapid, large-scale operational deployment for early warning and risk assessment.
 

EG: And how do your innovative computer models and Earth Observation technologies mitigate water-related risk?  

GS: Our innovative framework solutions merge advanced space-based Earth Observation, with operational forecast models and high-performance cloud-native computing to deliver rapid, actionable intelligence. By leveraging edge processing and real-time satellite data streams, we transform complex hydro-meteorological data into proactive modelling and mapping tools that safeguard vulnerable regions before disasters strike.
 

EG: How did your PhD in geography prepare you to establish one of the world’s leading organisations protecting disaster-prone countries around the world? 

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GS: My Ph.D. in Remote Sensing and Flood Modelling from the University of Dundee provided a rigorous scientific baseline in fusing satellite observations with hydrodynamic principles. This deep academic grounding bridged the gap between theoretical research and operational deployment, directly enabling me to build an impact-driven organisation dedicated to protecting disaster-prone nations.

EG: Your technology has a plethora of applications. Tell us about some of the services you provide for urban planning, humanitarian and developing aid? 

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GS: Our operational portfolio delivers high-resolution pluvial and fluvial risk mapping to guide climate-resilient urban planning and infrastructure design. For the humanitarian sector, we provide automated flood extent analytics and impact-based early warning tools and platforms that empower humanitarian agencies to streamline emergency preparedness and disaster response.
 

EG: You have even provided maps to the humanitarian and development aid sector in order to help with natural disasters. How important is giving back to the community after becoming successful? 

GS: Translating technological success into direct community impact is an ethical imperative and a core pillar of our mission. Providing critical mapping and scientific advisory services to vulnerable, disaster-prone countries, ensures that our advancements actively save lives and build long-term societal resilience where it is needed most. To strengthen this important engagement, we decided to spin out a non-profit organisation called Blu-H with a mission to empower communities with technological innovation and services to increase their resilience to humanitarian disasters.

EG: What impact do you think that developments in the field of A.I and robotics may have on environmental remote sensing in the next five years? 

GS: Over the next five years, edge computing and on-board artificial intelligence will revolutionise environmental remote sensing by enabling autonomous, real-time feature extraction directly on orbital platforms. Simultaneously, advances in robotics and autonomous systems will drastically enhance localised data collection, compressing disaster response latencies from days or hours, to minutes.

EG: How would you say that your work with NASA and subsequent research and development has deepened your insight into hydrology? 

GS: Collaborating within NASA research environments provided invaluable exposure to large-scale multi-sensor data assimilation and global Earth system observations. This intensive scientific exposure fundamentally expanded my perspective from localised watershed modelling, to holistic, continental-scale hydrological dynamics driven by advanced space-borne sensor synergy.   EG