EQECAT Releases Upgraded Germany Flood Model - Model Provides Sophisticated Tool to Assess River, Non-River Flood Exposure in All Postal Codes
October 3, 2006
Oakland, California
EQECAT, Inc., the authority on extreme-risk modeling, announced today the release of its upgraded Germany Flood model, part of its EuroFlood™ platform, enabling the European and international insurance industry to manage more effectively exposures from river and non-river floods in every postal code across the nation.
"The EQECAT model provides an enhanced and sophisticated tool to the marketplace which has sometimes found financial loss potential of floods in Germany to have been under-estimated, resulting in unexpectedly high loss levels," said James Webb, EQECAT European Product Manager. "Moreover, with exposures to floods increasing, the EQECAT model provides the industry with an appropriate tool to assist with accumulation control and underwriting decision-making," he said.
The upgraded Germany Flood model, as part of EuroFlood product, represents the second generation of the original DACH Flood model development, which was sponsored by Guy Carpenter. This subsequent release for Germany flood is an EQECAT initiative in recognition of the need to include other flood types and to expand the territorial scope of cover.
The EQECAT Germany Flood model includes more than 30,000 events, and takes into account time-of-the-year-dependent base flow, antecedent precipitation, soil-dependent infiltration rates, snowmelt, and defense-structure breaching probabilities.
EQECAT Germany Flood Model Is Fully Probabilistic Tool
The enhanced EQECAT Germany Flood model is a fully probabilistic tool, enabling insurers to assess building asset exposure to almost all flood types across Germany. It covers the major rivers, such as the Rhine, Elbe, Danube, Oder, Weser and Ems, along with an additional 100,000 kilometers of tributaries of those rivers and other river networks, as well as non-riverine flooding.
"In addition, the model has been validated by EQECAT against the most current scientific data, and by external flood specialists," he said.
ABS Consulting’s Expertise Also Played Key Role In Development
The risk engineering expertise of ABSG Consulting Inc., the parent company of EQECAT, also played a major role in the development of the vulnerabilities relationships in the model.
"The problem with developing vulnerability relationships is that they are often based too heavily on claims data which can be statistically unreliable. Claims data can be inconsistent and vary according to local market practice and insurer. Before calibrating vulnerabilities against claims data, EQECAT applied ABS Consulting's empirical engineering data and expertise," Mr. Webb said.
The upgraded model addresses key requirements facing the insurance industry including: accumulation control, portfolio optimization, pricing adequacy, and capacity allocation needs.
EQECAT's EuroFlood event set covers Europe from Ireland to Romania, assuring correlation between countries and river basins throughout Europe for future model expansion.
EQECAT, Inc. provides state-of-the-art products and services to the global property and casualty insurance, reinsurance and financial markets. EQECAT is the technical leader and innovator of catastrophe risk management models that quantify exposure to a range of natural and man-made catastrophic risks.
Through its modeling software platform, WORLDCATenterprise, EQECAT enables clients to quantify and manage the potential financial impact of natural hazards. WORLDCATenterprise includes 181 natural hazard software models for 95 countries spanning six continents. These models are based upon innovative applications of the latest science, engineering expertise, claims and exposure data and advanced mathematics.
EQECAT, a subsidiary of ABSG Consulting Inc., was founded in 1994 and is headquartered in Oakland, California.
For more information, contact:
pr@eqecat.com