Retention Investment Prioritizer

Idea:

Retention Investment Prioritizer is a satellite-backed MVP that helps identify where new retention reservoirs should be investigated first to reduce flood and water-supply risks.

The prototype focuses on the Nysa Kłodzka basin, which is important for downstream water security connected to Wrocław’s water system. It combines satellite, hydrological, GIS and event data to rank potential retention corridors.

The system does not replace engineers or hydrological modelling. Instead, it works as an early screening tool for water authorities, helping them decide where detailed feasibility studies should start.

Proof of concept:

We replayed the 2024 flood situation using historical data from the Nysa Kłodzka basin. Based only on data available from 2024, our MVP ranked Kamieniec Ząbkowicki as the top location to investigate for additional retention.

At that time, the reservoir was not yet under construction. Later, after the 2024 flood, the same location entered the official Wody Polskie investment/design pipeline, confirming that our system identified a real strategic priority.

This validates the core idea: a satellite-backed screening system can quickly highlight the same high-risk corridor that later becomes an official infrastructure decision.

The solution can scale from one river basin to many — first for Wody Polskie and Polish municipalities, and later for water authorities in other European countries.

EU space technologies:

Our MVP uses EU space data as the evidence layer for water-risk prioritisation:

Copernicus ERA5-Land — rainfall and weather forcing.CEMS GloFAS — hydrological context and river-discharge indicators.Copernicus EMS / EMSR756 — flood-event evidence from September 2024.Sentinel-ready extension — future integration of Sentinel-1 flood extent, Sentinel-2 optical indicators, land cover, vegetation and terrain data.

The key value of EU space data is scalability: the same workflow can be repeated across many river basins using comparable evidence.