Adaptation & Resilience

Early Warnings for All (EW4A) Systems Partnership

PIFCE Exhibitor

Estuari · Adaptation & Resilience

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Brief overview

Estuari is a social enterprise working across the Pacific to strengthen climate resilience through integrated engineering, data, and community-led approaches. We specialise in bridging STEM innovation with locally grounded humanitarian and development practice. Our work focuses on climate-resilient infrastructure that is accessible to all, including early warning systems, nature-based solutions, water, wastewater and flood management, ensuring solutions are technically robust and socially equitable. Through partnerships with research institutions, governments, and communities, Estuari supports the design, pilot, and scale-up of practical innovations that reduce disaster risk and enhance the adaptive capacity of Pacific communities and institutions.

Your organisation’s goals

Estuari delivers integrated services across climate resilience, water security, and disaster risk reduction, with a focus on practical implementation in complex environments. Our core services include: – Climate-resilient infrastructure: Technical advisory and design support for water, sanitation, and community infrastructure that is robust to climate variability and extreme events. – Early warning systems and anticipatory action: Design and strengthening of multi-hazard early warning systems that enable timely, locally relevant decision-making. This includes hydrological analysis, data integration, impact analysis, and community-centred communication systems. – Climate and environmental analytics: Application of emerging technologies, including remote sensing and AI-enabled modelling, to improve understanding of climate risks and environmental change. – Community engagement and co-design: Ensuring solutions are locally led, culturally appropriate, and aligned with community priorities, including safeguarding Indigenous knowledge. – Partnership development and systems strengthening: Facilitating collaboration between governments, private sector, research institutions, and civil society to deliver scalable climate solutions. Across all services, Estuari emphasises equitable outcomes, recognising that climate impacts are disproportionately experienced by marginalised groups and that solutions must be inclusive by design.

Describe your innovation

Estuari’s flagship innovation is its Early Warnings for All (EW4A) Systems Partnership, integrating advanced sensing technologies with community-led early warning systems. The innovation combines: – Real-time environmental sensing using telecommunications networks (in partnership with the UTS Network Sensing Lab), which transforms existing mobile infrastructure into distributed sensors for rainfall, water levels, and flood dynamics. – AI-enabled flood prediction and digital twin modelling, providing high-resolution, real-time forecasts of flood extent and impacts. – Multi-hazard data integration and impact analysis, linking environmental data with social vulnerability to identify who and what is most at risk. – Two-way, community-centred communication systems, ensuring warnings are actionable, accessible, and aligned with local knowledge and priorities. This innovation directly addresses climate change challenges by improving preparedness for increasingly frequent and intense climate-driven hazards such as floods and cyclones. Profoundly, this is achieved through the use of existing telecommunications infrastructure, minimising the need for investment in new, standalone meteorological and sensor hardware that is costly and difficult to maintain. For Pacific Island Countries and Territories, the solution is particularly relevant due to: – Directly addresses Pacific Countries and Territories’ high exposure to climate hazards. – Highly cost-effective, leveraging telecommunications infrastructure already in place across the Pacific. – Addresses the challenge of geographic dispersion of communities, especially in island communities. – Readily scalable. – Complements existing early warnings systems, and readily integrates local knowledge. By integrating cutting-edge technology with locally led systems, EW4A enables earlier, more equitable, and more effective responses, reducing loss of life, protecting livelihoods, and strengthening long-term climate resilience.

How is this solution is innovative?

This solution is innovative in three key ways: (1) Infrastructure-as-sensor approach: Rather than deploying new monitoring equipment, the system uses existing mobile networks as environmental sensors. Changes in signal behaviour (e.g. during rainfall or flooding) are analysed to generate real-time environmental data, significantly reducing cost and complexity. (2) Integration of AI and physical modelling: The solution combines hydrodynamic models with advanced AI (e.g. transformer-based models) to deliver high-resolution, real-time flood predictions. This hybrid approach overcomes limitations of both traditional modelling (slow) and purely data-driven approaches (data scarcity). (3) Human-centred system design: Unlike purely technical solutions, EW4A embeds community knowledge, local governance, and two-way communication. It prioritises accessibility, inclusion, and cultural appropriateness, ensuring warnings translate into action. The innovation lies not just in the technology, but in the integration of STEM, local knowledge, and institutional collaboration into a single, scalable system.

How can the innovation be replicated and scaled up in other PICTs?

The innovation is highly replicable across PICTs due to its leveraging of existing Pacific infrastructure and modular design. Institutional partnerships. Scaling requires collaboration with: – Mobile network operators (for access to network data) – National meteorological and disaster management agencies – Regional organisations – Local communities and civil society Technical scalability – The core technology can be adapted to new geographies with limited modification, as demonstrated by its applicability across different river systems and environments. Financing models. Blended financing approaches are suitable, including: – Public sector investment (e.g. disaster risk reduction, climate adaptation funds) – Donor funding (e.g. climate finance, development partners) – Private sector partnerships (e.g. telecommunications, insurance) Capacity strengthening focuses on: – Data interpretation and decision-making at national and local levels – Community engagement for effective early action – Technical training for system maintenance and adaptation Estuari’s partnership model supports this process by aligning research institutions, governments, and communities to co-develop and scale solutions sustainably.

How is the solution cost‑effective and affordable in the context of Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs)?

The inherent cost-effectiveness of this innovation is one of it’s primary value-adds, leveraging existing infrastructure and thus avoiding the high capital and maintenance costs associated with traditional sensor networks. From an end-user perspective: Communities: – Receive earlier, more accurate warnings without needing to invest in equipment – Benefit from reduced loss of assets, livelihoods, and lives – Access information through familiar, accessible communication channels Local governments: – Avoid large upfront infrastructure investments – Gain access to real-time, high-resolution data for decision-making – Improve efficiency of disaster response and resource allocation MSMEs and private sector: – Reduced disruption from climate events – Opportunities to integrate risk information into business planning Evidence shows that early warning and anticipatory action systems deliver strong economic returns, with significantly reduced disaster losses relative to investment. By combining low-cost sensing, scalable analytics for island contexts, and community-centred delivery, the solution promotes affordability and maximises impact, making it well-suited to the financial and operational realities of PICTs.

Locations (country, island, or community) where this solution has been piloted and/or implemented

The solution has been successfully piloted in Australia, and is technologically ready for scaling across the Pacific. The pilot is featured on the website of our partner, the UTS Network Sensing Lab: https://www.uts.edu.au/research/centres/network-sensing-lab

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