Key Takeaways
- Watch Duty, a nonprofit wildfire and flood alert platform, is integrating Planet’s high-resolution weekly satellite mosaics as a new map layer for enterprise customers.
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company is the first utility to use the feature, layering the imagery over its own infrastructure map inside Watch Duty.
- The satellite data shows vegetation conditions, roadways, burn scars, and fuel breaks that are more current than most existing satellite mapping tools, which Watch Duty says can lag by months or years.
- Will Marshall, co-founder and CEO of Planet, and John Mills, cofounder and CEO of Watch Duty, both said the partnership pairs Planet’s overhead imagery with Watch Duty’s ground-level incident reporting.
- Watch Duty and Planet said they plan to add more joint capabilities over time, including expanded mapping and analysis tools for disaster response.
Watch Duty Integrates Planet’s Satellite Data
Watch Duty, the San Francisco-based nonprofit known for real-time wildfire and flood alerts, announced Aug. 12 that it is integrating satellite imagery from Planet Labs PBC into its enterprise platform. The new map layer draws on Planet’s weekly high-resolution mosaics, giving utilities and telecom companies more recent views of their coverage areas than most satellite tools on the market currently offer.
The 2026 wildfire season has stretched longer and grown more destructive across the U.S., pushing utilities and other infrastructure operators to lean on real-time data for decisions such as when to shut off power in high-risk areas. The new imagery sits alongside the platform’s existing tools, including wildfire and flood incident tracking, human-verified reporting, and maps of enterprise assets.
PG&E Is the First Enterprise Customer
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which serves more than 16 million people across 70,000 square miles of Northern and Central California, is the first utility to adopt the integration, layering the satellite imagery over its own infrastructure data. The feature is now open to any enterprise customer of both companies, aimed at utilities, telecom operators, and other infrastructure managers.
How Watch Duty Users Will Benefit
The imagery will help enterprise customers track vegetation and fuel conditions, monitor roads and infrastructure corridors, and assess burn scars and flood damage after an incident, with potential uses in post-event damage planning and terrain change tracking.
Executives Describe the Partnership
“When managing wildfires, time is of the essence. This integration combines Watch Duty’s vital on-the-ground context with Planet’s overhead view, empowering teams at utilities like PG&E to move from reactive crisis management to proactive solutions to help protect people, property, and the environment,” said Will Marshall, Co-Founder and CEO of Planet.
“Planet’s satellite data gives our enterprise customers a better look at current vegetation conditions, roadways, burn scars, and fuel breaks, all of which play key roles in critical decision making,” said John Mills, Cofounder and CEO of Watch Duty.
“Our teams rely on timely, accurate information to understand wildfire events and conditions in the field. Having access to more current satellite imagery alongside our infrastructure in Watch Duty helps us build a more complete picture, make informed decisions and continue strengthening our wildfire mitigation efforts,” said Andy Abranches, PG&E Wildfire Mitigation Vice President.
Watch Duty and Planet said they expect to expand the partnership with additional mapping and analysis features aimed at wider disaster response use.
