30 May 2014News

Modellers promise global and consistent view on flood

Re/insurers can now map flood exposures for 168 countries establishing a consistent view of risk thanks to a partnership between JBA Risk Management and ImageCat.

Jill Boulton, director JBA Risk Management says that the absence of consistent global and cross-border flood mapping means that “assessing exposure across all countries was both complicated and inaccurate because the available maps varied in resolution and modelling technologies.”

Now thanks to JBA’s Global Flood Map being available in ImageCat’s new analytical platform inhance™, users can quickly and easily identify where their risks lie in relation to the maps’ flood outlines across all the world’s major river basins.

Boulton says, “The current trend towards more erratic weather systems globally brings with it a greater risk of floods. Just recently, for example, three-months-worth of rain hit the Balkans in the space of a few days. Initial estimates indicate damages of more than one billion euros in both Bosnia and Serbia.”

Launched in May 2014, inhance offers JBA’s Global Flood Maps as part of its comprehensive range of hazard datasets. By using the JBA flood maps in inhance, international property owners and re/insurers can get a better understanding of their flood exposures at address level, particularly for areas where they have non-modelled risks.

Flooding has now been identified as the first of the three leading risks for Europe associated with climate change. In its latest report the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said that if no additional steps are taken, flood damage to the European coast could increase by €11 billion a year.