ASTERRA Recover Satellite Leak Detection

ASTERRA was co-founded in 2013 as Utilis by Lauren Guy, adapting radar techniques first developed to search for water on Mars. It addresses non-revenue water: utilities lose large volumes of treated water through underground leaks that never surface and are slow to find with acoustic crews alone. The company lists offices in Kfar Saba (Israel), San Diego and London.

Recover analyses L-band polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from low Earth orbit satellites. Patented algorithms and AI models look for the dielectric signature of treated drinking water in the soil and separate it from rain or groundwater, then produce a system-wide map of likely leak locations. Results, crew activity, repairs and savings are tracked in the EO Discover platform and field apps. Customers are water and wastewater utilities, including Maynilad in the Philippines and municipalities in Japan, the US and the UK.

• L-band SAR analysis: detects the signature of treated water in soil across a whole service area.
• Leak Locations: a prioritised list of points of interest for field investigation.
• Temporal and spatial analysis: tracks leak patterns across repeated satellite passes.
• EO Discover platform: central view of leaks, crew activity, repair progress and savings.
• Field apps: U-Collect and U-View for recording and viewing investigation results.
• MasterPlan add-on: pipe deficiency mapping to support replacement planning.

• Water supply companies in Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City screening their whole network to prioritise leak-repair crews.
• Provincial water utilities building a baseline of underground losses before pipe replacement programmes.
• Industrial parks checking buried water mains without excavation.

• Screens an entire distribution network from orbit without excavation, so field crews only visit high-probability points.
• ASTERRA reports about 3.5 leaks found per crew day versus 1.3 with traditional acoustic methods, and crew efficiency gains of up to 400%.
• Subscription delivery with no capital spending on sensors or equipment.
• Since 2016 about 100,000 leaks have been verified, which the company links to large water and energy savings.

Water utilities worldwide face ageing pipes, drought and pressure to cut non-revenue water, while satellite radar data is becoming cheaper and more frequent. Fast-growing cities in Southeast Asia, including in Vietnam, run large distribution networks with high losses, and utilities such as Maynilad in Manila have already adopted satellite leak detection.

Founded in 2013 as Utilis and renamed ASTERRA in 2021. Offices: ASTERRA Corporate in Kfar Saba (Israel), ASTERRA USA in San Diego and ASTERRA UK in London. Received the AWWA Innovation Award and the 2017 Imagine H2O Data Challenge award. Projects with Maynilad (Philippines, 2024), Wajima City and Sakai City (Japan) and a New Mexico statewide programme (2025-2026).