Guy Carpenter to Develop Countrywide Probabilistic Flood Model for France
Written by Guy Carpenter
03 September 2008
London, September 3, 2008 Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC, the leading global risk and reinsurance specialist, today announced that its Instrat® unitis developing comprehensive flood hazard maps and a state-of-the art national flood model for mainland France, in collaboration with hydrological modelling experts, JBA Consulting, and Intermap Technologies (Intermap), a preeminent digital mapping company and global provider of high-quality 3D digital elevation models.
“By combining our probabilistic modelling capabilities with the finest digital terrain model and a unique hydrological modelling approach, this will be the most detailed countrywide model on the French territory available,” said Bernard Paul, Managing Director, Guy Carpenter.
“We plan to complete flood hazard maps by the end of 2009, closely followed by a fully probabilistic national flood model for France in early 2010,” added Manuel Chirouze, Project Manager for the France flood model development and member of the European Model Development Team in Guy Carpenter’s Instrat unit. “We expect that the model will enable insurance companies to better quantify their exposure to flood for reinsurance and risk management purposes.”
JBA Consulting will carry out river-flow modelling for approximately 80,000 kilometers of the French river network, using a comprehensive set of historic hydrological data collected from about 3,700 river gauge stations throughout the country. The modelling of water-flow will leverage JFLOW, JBA’s 2-D hydraulic model, routed through Intermap’s digital elevation model with one-meter vertical resolution.
Together, these technologies will enable the production of detailed flood boundary maps of the modelled river network for four return periods (50-, 100-, 250-, and 1000-years), showing both the depth of water and area flooded. JBA also will supply a stochastic flood event-set, created with newly developed statistical techniques that will allow the degree of correlation between flood events of various intensities within a river basin to be determined.
Intermap will provide Guy Carpenter with a uniformly accurate digital terrain model (DTM) for the whole of France, produced as part of its NEXTMap® Europe program. NEXTMap Europe provides 3D digital mapping for countries throughout Europe. Intermap Technologies has extensive experience in the production of geospatial information and in providing mapping solutions to the insurance industry.
“Intermap is pleased with this unique cooperation with Guy Carpenter and JBA,” commented Manfred Krischke, Intermap’s managing director and vice president for Europe.“The product we are jointly creating will enable Intermap to bring to the French market a superior risk management solution that will set the standard for flood risk assessment in the country for years to come.”
Simon Waller, Director of JBA Consulting's Environment Risk Research Division, added, “By combining the latest high-performance computing technology with detailed terrain data, we can apply our river flow models to improve the understanding of flood risk in France for insurers and reinsurers.”
About Guy Carpenter Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC is the world’s leading risk and reinsurance specialist and a part of the Marsh & McLennan Companies. With 50 offices worldwide, Guy Carpenter creates and executes reinsurance solutions and delivers capital market solutions* for clients across the globe. The firm’s full breadth of services includes line of business expertise in Agriculture; Aviation; Casualty Clash; Construction and Engineering; Excess and Umbrella; Life, Accident and Health; Marine; Medical; Political Risk and Trade Credit; Professional Liability; Property; Retrocessional Reinsurance; Surety; Terrorism and Workers Compensation. GC Fac® is Guy Carpenter’s dedicated global facultative reinsurance unit that provides placement strategies, timely market access and centralized management of facultative reinsurance solutions. In addition, Guy Carpenter’s Instrat® unit utilizes industry-leading quantitative skills and modeling tools that optimize the reinsurance decision-making process and help make the firm’s clients more successful. Guy Carpenter’s website address is www.guycarp.com.
* Securities or investments, as applicable, are offered in the United States through GC Securities, which is a division of MMC Securities Corp., a US registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC. Main Office: 1166 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10036. Phone: (212) 345-5000. Advice on securities or investments in the European Union is provided through GC Securities Ltd., authorized and regulated in the UK by the Financial Services Authority. Reinsurance products are placed through qualified affiliates of Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC. MMC Securities Corp., GC Securities Ltd. and Guy Carpenter & Company, LLC are affiliates owned by Marsh & McLennan Companies. This communication is not intended as an offer to sell or a solicitation of any offer to buy any security, financial instrument, reinsurance or insurance product.
About Intermap Technologies Intermap (TSX: IMP.TO, AIM: IMAP.L) is a preeminent digital mapping company creating uniform high-resolution 3D digital models of the earth’s surface. The Company is proactively remapping entire countries and building uniform national databases, called NEXTMap®, consisting of affordably priced elevation data and geometric images of unprecedented accuracy. Demand for NEXTMap data is growing as new commercial applications emerge within the insurance risk assessment, GIS, engineering, automotive, personal navigation device, oil and gas, hydrology, environmental planning, wireless communications, transportation, aviation and 3D visualization markets. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, Intermap employs more than 800 people worldwide, with additional offices in Calgary, Detroit, Jakarta, London, Munich, Ottawa, Prague, and Washington D.C. For more information, visit www.intermap.com. NEXTMap® is a registered trademark of Intermap Technologies Corporation.
About JBA Consulting JBA was founded in 1995 and is a leading specialist in flood risk and environmental management. The firm provides a uniquely integrated service in civil engineering, spatial modelling, GIS, wetland ecology, engineering, environmental and strategic water management, process modelling of the whole water cycle, and information management. JBA combines technical excellence and experience with pragmatism and value for money. Our team consists of over 200 technical staff including specialists in ecology, risk assessment, engineering design, hydrology, hydraulic analysis, hydrometry, water resources hydraulics, river basin management, emergency planning and database and GIS development. It is our aim to provide a focused, quality service with an environment of continual staff development through a programme of training, mentoring and inward investment. JBA's website address is www.jbaconsulting.co.uk.
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