Aon Benfield has expanded its Aon Benfield Research academic and industry research collaboration with new partner Ambiental to enhance the firm’s flood model development capabilities.
Ambiental, a flood risk assessment consultancy, is working with Impact Forecasting – Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development centre of excellence – to improve the mapping of flood extents using their advanced hydrodynamic modeling capability. The Ambiental approach describes the real physical behaviour of flood phenomena with improved accuracy, thus enhancing probabilistic catastrophe models and construction of historical event footprints.
Petr Puncochar, flood model developer at Impact Forecasting, said: “Developing model components that are compatible to high resolution elevation data is a complex task. Our approach is enhanced by using Ambiental’s latest generation of hydrodynamic models for flood extent determination. Working with Ambiental means we can access their knowledge and advanced technology to both support the initial model development work and generate more accurate outcomes for the insurance industry. Also, this cooperation enabled Ambiental to join Aon Benfield Research where flood related partnerships are now playing an important role on par with other longer-established perils such as earthquake and windstorm.”
Dr. Justin Butler, Managing Director at Ambiental, commented: “We are very enthused by this, our latest collaboration within the global insurance market. Working with Aon Benfield will empower Ambiental’s unique technology to reach new valuable areas within the flood risk and insurance communities for national-scale flood mapping and modeling. “It is always rewarding to see how the results of our flood knowledge and technology can be used practically to benefit the insurance industry, especially considering the scale of losses from recent extreme flood events internationally. Our hydrodynamic modeling tools use the latest computational techniques to increase processing speed whilst maintaining accuracy and stability so as to meet the demands of insurers, brokers and reinsurers for cost effective, high resolution flood mapping.”
