Understanding today’s risk critical in closing the flood protection gap: Fathom’s Dr. Smith
By Luke Gallin
Increasingly open and transparent data is vital in order to drive a greater understanding of, and demand for, flood insurance around the world, and will ultimately help to narrow the flood protection gap, according to Dr. Andrew Smith, Chief Operations Officer (COO) of UK-based flood risk modeller, Fathom.
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“We believe that the best way to narrow the flood insurance protection gap is to drive demand for flood insurance, and the way to drive demand for flood insurance is to provide consumers with the tools to identify and make a judgment on their own exposure. We believe that increasingly open data, including flood hazard data that can be viewed by the public, will drive this change.
“In parallel with the insurance sector embracing more applicable and relevant flood models it will engender confidence to identify and develop this market thereby closing this gap by understanding today’s risks more appropriately,” he explained.
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“However, understanding risk in the current climate state is a good starting point. Even in the US, existing FEMA flood data have been proven to significantly underestimate exposure nationwide. Insurers are currently pricing and underwriting yesterday’s flood risk, while climatic shifts have altered the risks of today.
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