Using satellite data to monitor water use efficiency across regions

Across the orchards, plantations and farms that supply our customers, water moves through a complex choreography of pipes, pumps, soil and sky. Getting that choreography right is no small task, particularly as climate patterns shift and competition for fresh water intensifies. That is why we have invested in eyes that never blink: constellations of Earth-observation satellites that watch our growing regions from hundreds of kilometres above the surface.

Each week, these spacecraft quietly collect terabytes of information about how vegetation uses water, how soils hold moisture and where irrigation infrastructure may be underperforming. By translating that information into clear metrics, our sustainability teams can compare regions, flag concerns early and design interventions that genuinely reduce water use per kilogram of fruit harvested. The result is a sharper, more honest picture of stewardship, one grounded in measurable evidence rather than estimates.

Why satellites have become central to our water stewardship

Conventional approaches to tracking irrigation efficiency often rely on flow meters, farmer records and occasional field inspections. These remain valuable, but they describe a single point in time and rarely capture the variability across a vast estate. A plantation may stretch across thousands of hectares with very different soils, slopes and microclimates, and a single visit can miss a great deal.

Satellite monitoring fills those gaps. Because the same sensor revisits the same block of land every few days, we can see how a crop's water demand rises and falls through the season, and how well our irrigation matches that demand. In a country like Australia, where the Murray-Darling Basin Plan governs allocation between irrigators, communities and the environment, this regional perspective is especially meaningful. It lets us benchmark our performance against local benchmarks, engage with regulators on shared catchments and demonstrate that every megalitre we draw is being used productively.

The technology working quietly above our fields

Our monitoring combines three families of remote sensing. Optical sensors, similar to those carried by the European Sentinel-2 and Landsat programmes, measure the light reflected from canopies and translate it into vegetation indices such as NDVI. Thermal sensors detect the heat signature of leaves and soil, which reveals where crops are stressed and where transpiration is happening efficiently. Radar satellites, which see through clouds using microwave pulses, give us reliable soil moisture readings even during the wet season in tropical zones.

The art lies in layering these signals. A thermal image alone may show a hot patch without explaining why, but paired with optical vegetation data and radar moisture maps, it tells a coherent story about irrigation blockages, drainage issues or simply the natural rhythm of a maturing crop. We process the raw scenes into cleaned, georeferenced datasets before any agronomist sees them, so the people making decisions are working from comparable snapshots rather than raw imagery.

Reading the landscape from orbit

Once the data is processed, we calculate a handful of practical indicators. Crop water productivity, expressed as kilograms of yield per cubic metre of water, is the headline number we track across regions. We also follow normalised difference water index readings, surface temperature anomalies and seasonal evapotranspiration totals. Each of these tells us something different: productivity is the bottom line, while the others help diagnose why productivity is rising or falling.

Comparing these indicators across regions is where satellite data truly shines. A plantation in Queensland can be measured against one in the Philippines or Costa Rica using the same methodology, removing the inconsistencies that would creep in if each site relied on its own local gauges. Over time, the accumulated record becomes a baseline, helping us separate one-off weather events from structural trends that require a different management response.

What this looks like in Australia

Australia presents a fascinating mix of conditions for our Australian operations and partners. In the southern Murray-Darling region, where almond, citrus and table-grape growers work within tightly licensed allocations, our satellite-derived evapotranspiration maps help fine-tune deficit irrigation strategies that protect both yield and the basin's long-term health. Around peri-urban fringes such as those near Melbourne and Adelaide, where households and growers share the same reservoirs, our teams use the data to support growers participating in state-level water-saving programmes and to document reductions tied to drip retrofits and mulching.

Further north, in the wet tropics around Cairns and Innisfail, the picture changes. Higher rainfall and persistent cloud cover make optical sensing harder, so we lean more heavily on radar soil moisture products. Our banana growers there benefit from the same approach that supports our broader soil health work, and the water metrics we generate complement the soil carbon sequestration tracking already underway. Together, these layers build a much richer picture of how a plantation is functioning than any single measurement in isolation.

From pixels to practical decisions on the ground

Data only matters when it changes how a field is managed. Our regional sustainability leads meet weekly to review the latest dashboards, and any anomaly flagged by the satellite analysis triggers a follow-up with the local farm manager. Perhaps a block is showing persistent heat stress that suggests a clogged drip line; perhaps a wider area is drying faster than expected and needs a different irrigation schedule; perhaps a whole catchment is trending toward drought and contingency plans need to be activated.

The same dashboards feed into our public reporting. Auditors, customers and community stakeholders can see, region by region, how water productivity is evolving and where investments in efficiency are paying off. This transparency matters in Australia, where the National Water Initiative and state-level frameworks such as Victoria's Water for Victoria plan expect large agricultural users to report and improve their performance. Aligning our internal metrics with those public expectations keeps our sustainability story consistent from the boardroom to the paddock.

Expanding the view toward coral coasts and beyond

Looking ahead, we are integrating water monitoring with broader landscape analytics, including the health of ecosystems adjacent to our operations. Coastal plantations share watersheds with reefs and mangroves, and understanding those connections matters as much as understanding the irrigation blocks themselves. Our work on mapping coral reef health near our coastal operations is one example of how we extend the same satellite toolkit beyond the farm gate, linking water productivity on land to ecosystem vitality downstream.

We are also exploring hyperspectral imaging, which captures hundreds of narrow wavelengths and can distinguish crop varieties, nutrient deficiencies and subtle water stress signatures that current sensors miss. Combined with machine-learning models trained on years of historical data, these next-generation tools will sharpen our ability to predict irrigation needs before stress becomes visible to the human eye. The aim is not technology for its own sake, but decisions that are more timely, more precise and more aligned with the realities of a changing climate.

If there is one thing worth holding onto from all of this, it is the simple idea that good stewardship begins with good measurement. Satellites give us the consistent, comparable view we need to honour that principle. Every litre of water saved, every block irrigated more precisely and every region benchmarked against its peers is the product of patient, persistent observation from above, translated into action by people who care about the land beneath their feet.