Guy Carpenter Readies Revised London Flood Model

July 23, 2007

Guy Carpenter Developing New London Flood Model for Insurers

Model Will Provide the Most Accurate Solution Available To Insurers for London Flooding

Global insurance and risk specialist Guy Carpenter & Co., LLC, reported that its Instrat unit, which provides quantitative analysis and modelling services, will release a new flood model to assess insurance exposure in London.

The company said its model will provide potential flood extents for sea surge and river flooding for a series of 1-in-250 year scenarios with and without the effects of flood defence breaching and Thames flood barrier failure.

The model was developed in collaboration with a range of providers including JBA Consulting and Infoterra, according to Guy Carpenter, whcih said this will be the first model designed for insurance use to incorporate information from the Environment Agency’s National Flood Defence Database, enabling a detailed assessment of the consequences of defence breaching.

Based on the Environment Agency information, defence modelling will be carried out by JBA in consultation with HR Wallingford, UK specialists in the development and application of systems for flood prediction and defence assessment.

Flood risk in the UK recently has become a matter of growing concern for the insurance industry, amid ever increasing development in flood plain areas and calls from the Association of British Insurers for the government to increase spending on flood protection schemes.

Source: Guy Carpenter
www.guycarp.com