Of Flood, Insurers and Policy Holders

Being the centre of commerce and the most populous city in Nigeria, the Friday, 16th July 2021 flood in Lagos turned into a major news story on all national dailies.?

While emergency response teams, government and nongovernmental organizations play important roles in responding to disasters, in many cases, it is insurance companies that cover the costs of rebuilding people’s houses, repairing cars and businesses. Insurers must understand the danger related to the policies they cover and make sure that they will pay claims when submitted.

How can insurance companies build pricing models that are equitable and fair?

Understanding the likelihood, or, as they say in the insurance business, the risk, that an event such as a flood, or any geohazard could occur and damage property or harm individuals is at the core of what safety net providers do.?

Understanding the risk in a given area has two essential advantages. In the first place, insurers can utilize this data to make certain their clients are as safe as possible (think about trimming brush and trees around houses, clearing waterways, evacuating areas and other stuff necessary in hotspot areas) and that they convey the suitable inclusions for any disaster that may affect that area. Second, backup plans can precisely rate the danger to guarantee they are gathering proper expenses for the misfortunes that are likely to be incurred.

Location intelligence helps insurers better understand the way to answer customers by tracking, before time, the severity of an occasion like a flood. They can view information about the heavy rainfall conditions, along with policyholder concentrations in the affected areas. This allows carriers to form timely decisions to make sure they need adequate resources available to service their policyholders at a time once they are needed most.

The Lagos flood wreaked silent havoc in several areas of the city, which exemplifies why it is important to know the exact location of both insured properties and flood intensity. The insured loss for that natural disaster is definitely a huge one. That means there'll likely be many claims to process.?

Knowing where policyholders are located and the specific path of the flood, insurers can accurately identify customers in the areas that were impacted by a flood or any geohazard. This is important because claim severity—the monetary amount of the claim—can vary significantly counting on the intensity of the storm at the situation of every claim.?

What is the simplest way for insurers to integrate location information into their claims workflows??

Insurers can use cloudbased geospatial software to view wind speed, analyze rainfall data and other meteorological data on a map to helps insurers monitor how much they must pay based on the intensity of the geohazards at each location. Most of these webbased GIS also gives desktops and mobile devices compatibility, insurance companies can create applications that staff can use throughout their organizations.

Tracking in near realtime events and viewing geocoded policy locations simplifies and improves the accurate identification of clients at impacted areas. Insurers use this information to turn policyholders which will have experienced losses, provide immediate assistance including hotel vouchers and rental cars, and calculate what their exposed loss may be in near realtime.

From risk assessment to claims management and property analysis, insurers need solutions that effectively organize, manage, and analyze extremely large datasets that can be used to measure risk. These include such information as proximity to hazards and emergency services, traffic patterns, commute routes, assets, and crime.?

The intelligence gained from analyzing these factors, alongside the situation of a policy or claim, means better pricing methodologies for the insurance industry.