Safeguarding Your Assets: A Proactive Approach to Resilience
Written by: Matt Fontanesi , Vice President Structural Resilience
Property value is an interesting expression of the ways in which people make choices. The reported value of the oceanfront house on the left is $15.9M and an estimated $13M for the A-frame house on the right. While the city hasn’t “red tagged” the house on the left —declaring it unsafe for occupancy—the desirability of the house would be expected to change over time. Buyers of at-risk properties weigh the benefits of a beautiful view against the risks related to financing, insurance and exit strategies. In areas like this, the cliffs are natural and undefended, and therefore under attack from waves below and rain above. Two consecutive wet winters saturated the soil, triggering landslides up and down the coast. Wet winters aren’t unprecedented, but climate change is increasing the frequency of wetter winters, larger storms, and more intense rainfall.? Dana Point averages 14” of rain a year, but the storm that preceded the landslide dumped 6.4” in a week. This storm was known as an atmospheric river, one mechanism for delivering supercharged rainfall.
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UCLA Climate Scientist Daniel Swain has estimated that climate change has increased the capacity of the atmospheric rivers we’ve experienced by 5-15%. As the planet continues to heat up the western U.S. is bracing for more atmospheric rivers—expected to not only occur more often but also grow in size. The reason being: warmer air and oceans make for storms that can carry more moisture, leading to bigger, more extreme atmospheric rivers.
So, what can you do to mitigate climate risks? Our Property Resilience Assessment could help you avoid this sort of financial exposure. We combine desktop research from several natural hazard and climate change sources, on-the-ground investigations of the site for relative resilience or mitigation efforts for the hazards, and prepare bespoke recommendations that focus on maximizing your ROI or minimizing your exposure. This gives you the data to make an informed decision about your investments.
Today’s natural hazard risks are somewhat defined, but a PRA can give insights into how climate change may exacerbate these risks in the future. Please contact Helena Ariza at [email protected] or Matt Fontanesi at [email protected] to find out more.