The research, published as the Global Flood Database, offers a comprehensive view of flood exposure around the world and underscores how alternative methods of analysing flood risks through platforms like Cloud to Street allows insurers to understand flooding in a new and revolutionary way. The entire database is hosted openly at Global-flood- database.cloudtostreet.ai.
The analysis reveals that the proportion of global population exposed to floods has grown by 24% since the turn of the millennium, a tenfold difference from what scientists previously thought. Growing exposure and a growing number of flood events are behind the rapid increase, according to the research.
Since Cloud to Street joined the Willis Research Network in 2020, the partnership has worked to address the insurance gap in the developing world, where some 90% of economic losses from disasters remain uninsured, putting economically vulnerable households at greater risk and slowing recovery efforts following disasters.
Today, most flood maps rely on modelling that simulates floods based on available ground data, such as elevation, rainfall and ground sensors. These models are time intensive and can have substantial limitations, entirely missing flooding incidents in regions not historically prone to flooding. This leads to a large flood insurance coverage gap and low flood insurance penetration worldwide, where coverage is either not available or inadequate.
In contrast, Cloud to Street’s Global Flood Database relies on satellite observations of actual flooding over the past two decades, which marks a step change in developing a comprehensive view of global flood risk. This allows additional analyses of the scope, impact, and trends of recent flooding. It represents a major advancement in the field of flood mapping and is essential to capture climate change’s accelerating, record-breaking disasters, while also enabling greater flood insurance penetration worldwide.
Bessie Schwarz, CEO and Co-founder of Cloud to Street, said: “More people and more assets are impacted by flooding than any other climate-fuelled disaster. The Global Flood Database will help insurers understand the changing nature of flood risk and offer more competitive insurance coverage. We are proud to enable governments and insurers to protect millions of people and billions in assets they have never been able to before.”
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