JBA launches new high resolution US flood maps

Flood risk modeller JBA Risk Management has launched new property-level resolution US flood maps designed to close the $10 billion US flood risk insurance gap in the market.

The maps use enhanced machine learning techniques and are designed to enable the insurance industry to expand their coverage of US flood, a peril that insurers have been reluctant to underwrite historically due to limitations in existing data.

The maps cover three major flood types at five meter resolution: fluvial (river flood), pluvial (surface water flood) and storm surge. They also use bespoke methods to capture hurricane scenarios where these flood types often occur simultaneously.

Matt Reid, managing director at JBA Risk Management, said: “There’s a widely held perception that flood is too risky to write in the US, which results in the significant insurance gap that we’re all familiar with – believed to be in the region of $10 billion."

“Our new maps give insurers access to high-quality data which reflects the nuances of flood risk exposure for the entire contiguous United States. Property-level data are vital for urban areas, which have a high density of insured assets, so these maps are really changing the playing field.”

Rebecca Alexandre, global mapping specialist at JBA, added: “Flood risk is an important but complex peril. It requires more detail than other perils because a flood event can devastate some properties on a particular street while leaving others entirely unharmed. A lack of detailed data has therefore left a huge gap in the market. We’ve used the latest technologies to empower US insurers to understand flood risk in a level of detail that hasn’t been available before. Writing flood no longer needs to be risky; now is the time to capitalize on the opportunity.”