The field walkWith Crop Loss Adjust
Draw the damage boundary before the field visit.
Crop Loss Adjust marks where the hail, flood, lodging or frost hit inside the insured parcel and grades each zone, from very-high-resolution imagery, so the walk starts in the right place.
- GSD
- ≤0.5 mVHR
- Cadence
- Event driven
- Platform
- VHR satellite / aerial
- Spectral
- RGB + NIR
Where the first pass runs out
A storm goes through and the notices of loss pile up. You get a list of units, and each one is a drive out, a walk in from the road and sample counts where you decide to take them.
In a field of any size you can't see the far side from the edge, so a good part of every visit goes on finding out where the damage actually is. When one storm produces more units than you can reach, the growers at the bottom of the list wait, with the crop still standing.
The first pass, step by step
01Where to start on the list
- The field walk
- Units get worked in the order the notices came in, or by whatever route makes sense for the drive.
- With Crop Loss Adjust
- The damage area per parcel tells you which units took the worst of it. Start there.
02Finding the damage
- The field walk
- You walk in from the road and look for where the crop changes, then sample around what you find.
- With Crop Loss Adjust
- You get a damage boundary drawn inside the parcel from imagery, so you already know the shape of it.
03Grading how hard it was hit
- The field walk
- You judge severity as you move through the field and settle on it from your counts.
- With Crop Loss Adjust
- Each zone inside the boundary carries a severity grade, which shows you where the light damage ends and the heavy damage starts.
04Dating the damage
- The field walk
- The event date comes from the notice of loss and your own read of the field.
- With Crop Loss Adjust
- The imagery is dated and matched to the event date on the claim, so the record shows what the parcel looked like after the event.
05The claim file
- The field walk
- Photos from the ground, your notes, the worksheet.
- With Crop Loss Adjust
- A boundary and grade sit alongside them as an imagery-dated page for the file.
06The appraisal and the sign-off
- The field walk
- You take plant or stand counts at your sample points, work out the percent of loss and write the adjuster report.
- With Crop Loss Adjust
- You take the same counts, but at points the boundary and zones point you to.
- Still yours
- The appraisal, the grade you put in the report, the adjuster report, and any settlement decision.
What you get for each claim
APolygon
Damage boundary
The outline of the damaged area inside the insured parcel. It answers "where do I walk" and "how many acres". Goes in as a GIS layer or as a page in the claim file.
BGrade per zone
Severity grade by zone
Each stretch of the boundary graded for how hard it was hit, so you can sample the worst zones and the edge of them.
CImagery page
Event-dated imagery
The post-event image the boundary was drawn on, dated, and matched to the event date on the notice of loss.
A claim, start to finish
Send the parcel and the event date. We task or pull VHR imagery after the event, find where the crop changed against how it looked before, and split the damage into zones. You get the boundary and grade back for the claim file.
01 Parcel and event date in
The insured parcel outline and the date the peril hit. Add the peril if you have it: hail, flood, lodging or frost.
02 VHR imagery
We pick a clear pass after the event at 0.5 m or finer, satellite or aerial.
03 Change and segmentation
The imagery is compared with how the parcel looked before, and the changed area is cut into the damage boundary and its zones.
04 Boundary and grade out
You get the boundary, the grade for each zone and the dated image, ready to attach.
Before the field walk
Use it to decide which units to see first and where to start inside each one. Your worksheet, your counts and your grade go in the report as they do now. The imagery page sits in the claim file next to your notes.
Limits
- It is a first pass
- The boundary and grade go before your field inspection. They do not replace it.
- Clouds after the event
- Optical imagery needs a clear pass. A cloudy stretch after the storm can delay delivery.
- Resolution floor
- At 0.5 m a pixel is about 20 inches across. Zones of damage show up. A single plant, or a few, does not. Zone-level grading is the limit, and coarser imagery would not hold it.
- What imagery can't see
- Damage that has not yet changed how the crop looks from above can be missed, and the same goes for what is under a canopy or in shadow. Those places get flagged and stay on your walk.
- No dollar figures
- The grade is a class. It does not give a percent of loss, a payout or a settlement recommendation.
Who it's for
For
- Independent loss adjusters working a storm backlog
- Crop insurer and adjusting-firm claims teams sending adjusters to insured parcels
- Hail, flood, lodging and frost events on row crops and other field crops
Not for
- Settlement amounts or payout calculations
- Replacing the field inspection or the proof of loss
- Damage at the scale of individual plants
- Monitoring a parcel when no event has been reported
Questions before your first claim
Does this replace the field inspection?
No. It is a first-pass boundary and grade you confirm on the ground. The inspection, the appraisal and the report are yours.
What if the event happened under cloud cover?
Optical imagery needs a clear pass after the event. If cloud stays over the parcel, delivery can be delayed.
What resolution does it need?
0.5 m or finer. Coarser imagery can't resolve severity zones inside a parcel.
Does this set the payout?
No. It gives a boundary and a severity grade. You and the insurer determine settlement.
How do we check it against our own appraisals?
Take a claim you have already worked, send the parcel and the event date without your notes, and compare our boundary and zones with what you found on the ground.
What do we send and what comes back?
The parcel and the event date. You get the boundary, the grades and the dated imagery page.
Will it open in our claims system?
It comes as a GIS layer and as a page you can attach. We don't write into your claims system.
Who owns the imagery and the results?
Ownership and licence terms are agreed in writing when you get started. If your legal team needs them earlier, ask.
How is it bought and priced?
The price depends on how many parcels and what imagery is used. Tell us how you handle claim volume and we'll scope it to that.
Get the damage boundary for your next claim.
Send us the parcel and the event date from a claim on your desk. We'll tell you what the imagery can show.