March 10, 2015 — Hazard modelling specialist JBA Risk Management and geospatial services provider emapsite have broadened their partnership to offer a wider choice of essential flood risk data.
Insurers, underwriters, loss adjusters and claims managers are among those set to benefit from wider availability of JBA data through emapsite’s ‘Data as a Service’ (DaaS) on-demand location content platform.
Building on their initial collaborations which are already in production with a number of customers, the expanded partnership will enable further seamless delivery of data for analysis, optimal risk selection and point-of-sale pricing.
Newly-available JBA data include Annual Damage Ratio (ADR) data, the European Flood Model (EFM) and the Global Flood Map (GFM). The GFM and EFM identify locations at risk from flood on a worldwide and European basis, while ADR data provides a quantified measure of risk for underwriting purposes. These add to an existing portfolio of perils and mapping data already hosted and delivered by emapsite.
One of the first customers to benefit from the broader partnership is specialist insurance provider Flood ExcessInsurance.
Chris Netherton, Managing Director, said: “After a thorough selection process we incorporated JBA’s ADR data into our pricing and operational processes. We also outsourced supply to emapsite, who provide a valuable liaison function between ourselves and JBA, together with online access to the latest ADR data via their data-as-a-service capabilities.”
James Cutler, emapsite Chief Executive, said: “We are delighted to be providing data enrichment services to Flood Excess. These additions to our location content delivery platform will enable more insurers to realise business value immediately by no longer having to deal with costly IT deployments, training and maintenance.”
Mr Cutler added: “JBA’s recognised leadership in hazard modelling and commitment to helping insurers manage and mitigate risk make them an ideal emapsite partner. We are proud of what we have achieved to date with JBA and are excited to add ADR data and the GFM to our location content platform.”
JBA’s ADR datasets provide annualised losses, expressed as a proportion of the unit value insured, which quantify the annual flood damage expected at a location for a given risk type and property structure. ADR data can be developed for any location (including at property level) where JBA has hazard maps. In the UK, ADR data are provided for river, coastal and surface water flood and combine well with other property-level datasets on emapsite’s platform including address data from Ordnance Survey.
The GFM incorporates sophisticated modelling techniques based on elevation data for major rivers in 168 countries gathered at the highest consistent resolution available. The consistency of the GFM simplifies the assessment of exposure across multi-national portfolios. In the context of flooding, the GFM supports analysis of river flood depth at different return periods. It will soon include rainfall inundation modelling which will also incorporate the world’s minor watercourses.
JBA’s Europe Flood Map (EFM) provides consistent mapping across 13 European countries. The EFM allows hazards to be easily compared between any or all of the countries covered and provides undefended river flood hazard mapping at up to 10m resolution.
Jill Boulton, Director of JBA Risk Management, said: “We welcome Flood Excess on board as a new customer, endorsing our innovative and pragmatic partnership with emapsite. It offers insurers swift, high performance access to essential data to inform their analysis and decisions. Our flood data offering is a perfect combination of state-of-the-art data delivery and hydrological science. Together we will continue to expand our peril solutions portfolio for the insurance industry through our depth of insight and geographic coverage.”
emapsite’s partnerships with organisations such as Ordnance Survey and the British Geological Survey mean it can offer a wide range of location data for insurers, including the definitive addressing of all residential and commercial properties in the UK. The data portfolio also includes topographic base mapping, aerial imagery, 3D terrain data and the age, construction type and footprint of buildings. In addition to flood, available perils datasets cover subsidence (including tree height and canopy cover), crime, distressed retail properties, historic land use, terrorism, earthquake and tsunami.
For more information visit www.emapsite.com, www.jbarisk.com or www.floodexcess.com
