“Flood is one of the costliest commercial property risks and it’s only getting worse with climate change, globalization and urbanization,” Brion Callori, senior vice president and manager for engineering and research at property insurer
FM Global, said.
“As with other risks, the first step in loss prevention is identifying the hazard,” he added.
To this end, the company has opened access to its Global Flood Map, which helps commercial and individual users identify flood risk in geographies in Africa, Asia, Europe and South America.
According to an FM Global statement, the web based map provides comprehensive information that uses physically based flood maps which employ hydrologic and hydraulic models and reflects data on rainfall, evaporation, snowmelt and terrain.
The information is also scaled on 90 meter by 90 meter grids at any given time.
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Global Flood Map categorizes hazards as high, which means a location is in a 100 year flood zone and a 1% per year probability of experiencing a flood; and moderate, which means the locations sit on a 500 year flood zone and has a 0.2% chance per year of experiencing a flood.
Quoting
Aon Benfield data, the firm said flooding has been the costliest overall peril for the past four years until 2016 in terms of global economic losses, which translated to $62 billion in damage that year.
“The map is the latest embodiment of FM Global’s commitment to resilience…(The company) offers its engineering based risk management approach to help clients understand and mitigate the risk,” the company added in the statement.
To access the map, users can type in physical addresses on a web based interface.
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