Sustainability Atlas
Adaptation & Resilience·13 min read··...

Interview: the builder's playbook for Flood, drought & wildfire resilience — hard-earned lessons

A practitioner conversation: what surprised them, what failed, and what they'd do differently. Focus on implementation trade-offs, stakeholder incentives, and the hidden bottlenecks.

In 2024, the United States experienced 27 billion-dollar climate disasters—three times the 44-year historical average. The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires alone burned over 50,000 acres, destroyed 16,000 structures, displaced 180,000 people, and generated an estimated $40 billion in insured losses. Across Asia-Pacific, coastal flooding now costs $26.8 billion annually, with projections reaching $336-735 billion per year by 2100. McKinsey estimates a $1 trillion opportunity in climate resilience technology by 2030, yet the financing gap for adaptation remains staggering: the region needs $200 billion annually, with flood protection infrastructure alone requiring $95-98 billion by 2030.

We spoke with practitioners building flood, drought, and wildfire resilience solutions across Asia-Pacific and beyond—engineers deploying smart flood barriers, product teams integrating AI wildfire detection, and water management specialists confronting unprecedented drought conditions. Their hard-earned lessons reveal the hidden bottlenecks, stakeholder incentives, and implementation trade-offs that determine success or failure in this rapidly evolving sector.

Why It Matters

Climate adaptation is no longer optional for product and design teams. The climate adaptation market reached $30.1 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $104.9 billion by 2032—a 16.7% compound annual growth rate that outpaces most technology sectors. For Asia-Pacific specifically, 36.5% of global climate adaptation investment now flows to the region, with nearly 100% of Southeast Asia's population facing flood risk under 2°C warming scenarios.

The business case extends beyond disaster response. Supply chain disruptions increased 30% in the first half of 2024 due to climate events. Insurance markets are restructuring: flood insurance grew at 20.3% CAGR to become a $52.6 billion market by 2032. Utilities, facing $6 billion or more in annual wildfire-related losses in countries like Indonesia and Australia, are becoming anchor customers for detection and prevention technologies.

For product teams in the region, the imperative is threefold: regulatory compliance (SEC climate disclosures, California SB 261, EU CSRD frameworks now affecting multinational supply chains), customer demand (corporations require climate risk assessments from suppliers), and operational continuity (protecting physical assets and workforce from escalating climate impacts).

Key Concepts

Understanding the resilience landscape requires grasping several interconnected domains that practitioners navigate daily.

Multi-Hazard Risk Assessment involves analysing how flood, drought, and wildfire risks compound and interact. A single region may face flooding in monsoon season, drought during dry periods, and wildfire risk when drought combines with heat stress. The Mekong River Basin exemplifies this complexity: it represents a flooding hotspot while simultaneously experiencing prolonged dry seasons that stress agriculture and increase fire risk in adjacent forested areas.

Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) are gaining traction as cost-effective alternatives to traditional grey infrastructure. Integrated watershed management, ecosystem restoration, and hybrid approaches combining natural and engineered systems deliver multiple co-benefits: carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection, and community resilience. Samoa's $65.7 million Vaisigano River Catchment project demonstrates how Green Climate Fund investments can combine hard infrastructure with nature-based interventions.

Early Warning Systems (EWS) represent one of the highest-return investments in resilience. In Southeast Asia, functional EWS prevent $8.7-13.1 billion annually in avoided damages; Pacific island nations see $4-6 billion in averted losses. The technology stack has evolved rapidly: AI-powered cameras, IoT sensor networks, satellite-based monitoring, and predictive analytics now enable detection in minutes rather than hours or days.

Scenario Analysis and Transition Planning help organisations stress-test their operations against multiple climate futures. Physical risk modelling—addressing floods, hurricanes, and wildfires—now commands 44.8% of climate risk management spending. Product teams must integrate these scenarios into development roadmaps, supply chain design, and infrastructure decisions.

MRV (Measurement, Reporting, and Verification) provides the accountability framework for resilience investments. As adaptation finance scales, investors and regulators require evidence that interventions deliver promised outcomes. This creates demand for monitoring technologies, data platforms, and verification protocols that can demonstrate measurable risk reduction.

What's Working

Pano AI and Utility Wildfire Detection

Pano AI exemplifies how focused technology deployment can achieve product-market fit in resilience. The company's 360-degree panoramic cameras capture wildfire imagery every minute, with AI algorithms detecting smoke and fire in near-real-time. Having raised $89 million including a $44 million Series B in June 2025, Pano now monitors approximately 20 million acres and has detected over 100,000 fires. Fifteen utility customers—including APS, PGE, and Xcel Energy—pay approximately $50,000 per station annually.

The lesson for product teams: utilities represent anchor customers with deep pockets and urgent needs. Power lines cause significant percentages of catastrophic wildfires, creating existential liability for utilities. Pano's success stems from understanding this customer's specific pain point and delivering a solution that integrates with existing utility operations.

Overstory Vegetation Intelligence

Overstory demonstrates the value of AI-powered prevention over reactive response. Using satellite imagery and proprietary machine learning, the Amsterdam and Boston-based company provides vegetation intelligence to utilities, identifying high-risk trees and vegetation before they contact power lines. Six of the ten largest utilities in the Americas now use Overstory, monitoring over 2 million acres and protecting $6 billion in utility assets.

Their $43 million Series B in November 2025 validated a critical insight: preventing fires costs far less than suppressing them. The company's Fuel Detection Model enables utilities to prioritise vegetation management, reducing both wildfire risk and customer outage times. For product teams, this illustrates how data-driven prevention can create sustainable business models in resilience.

Asian Development Bank Climate Mainstreaming

At the institutional level, the Asian Development Bank's commitment to $100 billion in cumulative climate financing from 2019-2030 demonstrates how multilateral development banks can mainstream resilience. With 56-65% of ADB operations now supporting climate action, flood control, water supply, and irrigation infrastructure are receiving consistent funding streams.

The IF-CAP guarantee mechanism—generating up to $5 in new climate loans per guaranteed dollar—shows how innovative finance structures can multiply impact. For product teams working with government and development clients, understanding these mechanisms opens doors to scaled deployment that pure commercial markets cannot yet support.

What's Not Working

The Adaptation Financing Gap

Despite growing awareness, adaptation receives a fraction of climate finance. Of $831 billion in urban adaptation finance tracked in 2021-22, only $10 billion was directed specifically to adaptation—including drought resilience. Private flows remain stubbornly small, consistently below $1 billion annually for adaptation specifically. The financing gap requires $215-387 billion annually for 2025-2030 in the Global South alone, with projections reaching $0.5-1.3 trillion per year globally by 2030.

Practitioners report that revenue models remain challenging. Cash-strapped fire departments and municipal water authorities cannot pay commercial rates. The value of prevention is difficult to quantify: how do you price a wildfire that did not happen?

Fragmented Early Warning Systems

While the technology exists for effective early warning, implementation remains fragmented. Many Asia-Pacific nations lack integrated multi-hazard warning systems. Data sharing between agencies is limited. Last-mile communication to vulnerable communities often fails. The technology is solving only part of the problem; institutional coordination and community engagement require equal attention.

Insurance Market Retreat

In high-risk areas, insurance markets are retreating rather than innovating. Following the LA fires, insurers face unprecedented losses while homeowners in fire-prone regions struggle to obtain coverage at any price. This creates a vicious cycle: without insurance, property values decline, reducing the tax base that funds public resilience infrastructure.

Practitioners note that parametric insurance and risk pools show promise but remain niche. Tokio Marine and other major insurers are investing in prevention technology, suggesting a potential shift from pure risk transfer to active risk reduction. However, the transition is slow and uneven.

Standards and Interoperability

The resilience technology ecosystem lacks common standards. Sensor data formats vary between vendors. Integration with municipal emergency management systems requires custom development. Procurement processes favour incumbents with established relationships over innovative startups with superior technology. For product teams, this means significant resources devoted to integration rather than core functionality.

Key Players

Established Leaders

Veolia Environnement — Global water management leader operating across 58 countries. Provides integrated water services including distribution, wastewater treatment, and drought resilience solutions for municipalities and industrial customers.

Honeywell — Major player in disaster preparedness systems with solutions spanning fire detection, building management, and critical infrastructure protection. Their Connected Buildings platform integrates resilience monitoring across large portfolios.

Zurich Insurance Group — Pioneer in climate risk assessment and resilience advisory services. Their Climate Resilience Solutions unit helps corporate clients quantify and reduce physical climate risks.

Asian Development Bank — Multilateral development bank with $100 billion climate finance commitment (2019-2030). Primary funder of flood control, water supply, and climate adaptation infrastructure across Asia-Pacific.

Emerging Startups

Pano AI (San Francisco) — AI-powered wildfire detection using 360° panoramic cameras. $89M total funding, 15 utility customers, monitoring 20M+ acres. Detected 100,000+ fires.

Overstory (Amsterdam/Boston) — AI vegetation intelligence for utility wildfire prevention. $43M Series B (November 2025). Serves 6 of 10 largest utilities in Americas.

Gridware (San Francisco) — IoT sensors on power poles for grid monitoring and failure detection. $26.4M Series A led by Sequoia Capital. 10,000+ poles monitored across 1,000+ miles.

FIDO AI — AI leak detection for water distribution networks. Series B funding (October 2024) from CRH Ventures, SKion Water, and Emerald Technology Ventures.

Dryad Networks (Berlin) — IoT sensor network for ultra-early wildfire detection in smouldering phase. Developing autonomous drone suppression system.

Key Investors & Funders

Convective Capital — Dedicated wildfire technology fund. $35M Fund I (2022), targeting $75M Fund II (2025). Backed by Bill Clerico (ex-WePay). Investments include Rain Industries and Rhizome.

Emerald Technology Ventures — €1B+ assets under management. Launching €150-180M Global Water Fund II focused on smart infrastructure and drought resilience.

Green Climate Fund — Major adaptation finance source with projects like Samoa's $65.7M Vaisigano River flood resilience programme.

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank — Launched first climate adaptation bond (AUD $500M) with 20%+ dedicated to adaptation projects.

Breakthrough Energy Ventures — Bill Gates-founded fund backing wildfire and resilience startups including detection and suppression technologies.

Action Checklist

  1. Conduct multi-hazard risk assessment — Map your operations, supply chain, and customer base against flood, drought, and wildfire exposure. Use tools like Climate Risk Analytics platforms to quantify physical risks under multiple scenarios.

  2. Identify anchor customers — Utilities, insurance companies, and government agencies have urgent needs and budgets. Prioritise these segments for initial product development and go-to-market strategy.

  3. Design for integration — Build APIs and data formats compatible with existing emergency management and utility systems. Interoperability reduces customer acquisition friction and accelerates deployment.

  4. Partner with development finance institutions — ADB, Green Climate Fund, and regional development banks provide patient capital and access to government customers. Understand their procurement processes and co-financing requirements.

  5. Build MRV from day one — Demonstrate measurable impact through robust monitoring. Investors and customers increasingly require evidence of outcomes, not just activity metrics.

  6. Consider hybrid business models — Combine technology sales with data services, insurance partnerships, or outcome-based pricing. Pure SaaS models may not fit all customer segments.

  7. Engage community stakeholders early — Technology deployed without community buy-in fails. Early warning systems require trusted communication channels and cultural adaptation.

  8. Plan for regulatory evolution — SEC climate disclosures, CSRD, and regional equivalents are creating compliance demand. Position products to help customers meet emerging requirements.

FAQ

Q: How do we prioritise between flood, drought, and wildfire resilience when resources are limited?

A: Start with your specific geographic and sectoral exposure. Use physical climate risk data to identify which hazards pose the greatest threat to your operations, supply chain, and customers. For Asia-Pacific product teams, coastal flooding often represents the highest immediate risk given population concentration in low-elevation zones—44.1 million people live in areas less than 1 metre above sea level in South Asia alone. However, compound risks matter: drought can exacerbate wildfire conditions and stress water-dependent operations simultaneously. Conduct scenario analysis under multiple climate pathways (1.5°C, 2°C, and higher warming scenarios) to understand how risks evolve over your planning horizon. Many practitioners recommend starting with the hazard that has the clearest customer pain point and willingness to pay, then expanding to adjacent risks.

Q: What's the realistic timeline for achieving product-market fit in resilience technology?

A: Based on practitioner experience, expect 18-36 months from initial product deployment to repeatable sales. The constraint is rarely technology—it's customer acquisition cycles. Government and utility customers have extended procurement processes, often 12-18 months from initial engagement to contract. Insurance customers may move faster but require extensive proof of efficacy. Startups like Pano AI and Overstory achieved traction by focusing narrowly on utility customers with urgent regulatory and liability pressures, then expanding from this base. The key is identifying customers where resilience failure creates existential risk, not just incremental cost.

Q: How do we compete with established players who have existing customer relationships?

A: Incumbents often lack the AI and data science capabilities that define modern resilience solutions. Utilities, for example, have decades-long relationships with traditional grid equipment suppliers, but those suppliers struggle to deliver AI-powered wildfire detection or predictive vegetation management. Focus on capabilities that incumbents cannot easily replicate: real-time analytics, satellite-derived insights, or autonomous response systems. Consider partnership models where your technology enhances rather than replaces incumbent offerings. Gridware succeeded partly by integrating with existing utility infrastructure rather than requiring wholesale replacement.

Q: What role should nature-based solutions play in our product strategy?

A: Nature-based solutions represent a growing segment of resilience investment, particularly for flood and drought management. The Green Climate Fund and multilateral development banks increasingly favour projects combining grey and green infrastructure. For product teams, this creates opportunities in monitoring and verification of NbS performance—demonstrating that restored wetlands actually reduce flood peaks, or that reforested watersheds improve drought resilience. Consider how your technology can measure and validate nature-based interventions, not just engineered solutions. This positioning aligns with regulatory trends favouring ecosystem approaches and can differentiate against competitors focused solely on hardware.

Q: How do insurance market dynamics affect resilience technology opportunities?

A: Insurance retreat from high-risk areas creates both challenges and opportunities. On one hand, reduced insurance availability limits the market for risk transfer products. On the other hand, insurers increasingly invest in prevention to reduce claims. Tokio Marine, Zurich, and other major insurers are backing detection and prevention technologies. Consider business models where insurers become customers, distribution partners, or investors. Parametric insurance products—which pay out based on measured events rather than assessed losses—create demand for monitoring technologies that can trigger automated claims. The shift from risk transfer to risk reduction represents a structural opportunity for resilience technology providers.

Sources

The $1 trillion climate resilience opportunity represents a generational inflection point for product and design teams. Those who understand the implementation trade-offs, stakeholder incentives, and hidden bottlenecks—lessons hard-earned by practitioners already in the field—will be positioned to capture disproportionate value as the adaptation imperative accelerates across Asia-Pacific and beyond.

Topics

flooddroughtwater scarcityheat stressscenario analysistransition planMRV

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