Suzanne Bearne
Technological journalist
Getty images
Storm Babet caused floods across the United Kingdom in October 2023
When Storm Babet hit the city of Truwel in Nottingham in 2023, Claire Sneddon felt confident that her house was not affected.
After all, when she bought the property in 2021, the real estate agent told her that a previous flood the previous year, who had reached but had not carried out the property, was an event once alive, and that flood measures to protect the properties of the cul-de-sac would be set up.
However, when Storm Babet torn the United Kingdom two years later, Ms. Sneddon’s house flooded after several days of rain.
“We knew that there would be water on the cul-de-sac, but no one expected it to flood it again internally. However, the water entered the property for five hours,” she said.
“He reached the top of the plinths. We had to replace all the floors, the woodwork and the lower kitchen, which took almost 12 months.”
Their final insurance bill was around £ 45,000.
She says that they were fortunate to have qualified for a government regime offering affordable insurance to owners in high flood risk areas.
Although she loves the region, her neighbors and the house, time is now a cause of stress. “We are constantly concerned about the weather, if he will rain longer than a few days or if he has a named storm.
“We want us to take more measures to understand the risk. The survey showed that the property was in an average flood zone, but there was not much other than flood zone cards.”
Claire Sneddon
Claire Sneddon’s house was flooded for hours and took weeks to dry
Climate change increases the probability and intensity of natural disasters such as floods, forest fires and hurricanes.
Although it is too late for Ms. Sneddon and other owners, new tools are under development to help people and businesses assess climate risks.
Last December, the United Kingdom Environment Agency updated its national flood risk assessment (NAFRA), showing the risk of current and future flood of rivers, the sea and surface waters for England.
He used his own data alongside the local authorities and the climatic data of the Met Office.
He also updated the Risk of National Coastal Erosion (Ncerm). They were both updated for the last time in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
The new NAFRA data shows up to 6.3 million properties in England are in areas at risk of flooding rivers, the sea or surface water, and with climate change, this could increase to around 8 million by 2050.
“We have spent the last years transforming our understanding of the risks of flood and coastal erosion in England, based on the best available data … as well as the improvement of modeling and technology progress,” said Julie Foley, director of risk strategy at the Environment Agency.
“When we represent the latest climatic projections, one in four property could be in areas at risk of flooding in the middle of the century.”
The Environment Agency plans to launch a portal where users can check their risk of long -term flooding.
Similar resources exist for Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales through ABI.
“We can no longer count on historical data,” explains Lukky Ahmed, co-founder of Climate X.
The London -based climate risk company offers a digital earth twin, which simulates different extreme meteorological events and their potential impact on properties, infrastructures and assets in different emission scenarios.
It combines artificial intelligence with climatic models based on physics.
“While many climatic models could tell you how much precipitation expect, they don’t say what’s going on when this water touches the ground,” said
“Our models simulate, for example, what happens when water strikes, where it moves and what the impact of floods will be.
Although banks are lenders test their product, real estate companies are currently using their services when they envisage new developments.
“They connect to our platform and identify existing and return locations and construction actions, they receive risk-related measures related to dangers,” said Ahmed.
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Los Angeles parties saw devastating fires in January
Many parts of the world have much more extreme weather conditions than the United Kingdom.
In the United States in January, devastating wild fires tore certain parts of Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Hurricane Milton, which landed last October, is probably one of the most expensive hurricanes to strike Western Florida.
To help insurers manage these costs, Faura, based in New York, analyzes the resilience of houses and commercial buildings.
“We examine the different elements of a property to understand how likely it is to survive and determine the resilience and the survival of a property,” explains Valkyrie Holmes, co-founder of Faura.
“We tell businesses and owners if their property will always be held after a disaster, not only if a disaster will occur in an area,” he adds.
FAURA bases her assessments on satellite and air imaging and the data of surveys and reports in the event of a disaster.
“Insurance companies technically have the data to be able to do so, but have not built the models to quantify it,” said Holmes.
Redfin
Climate risk can “make or break” a sale of properties indicates that Daryl Fairweather
Other services appear for house buyers. For the properties it markets, the American company Redfin, estimates the percentage of chances of natural disasters, such as floods and forest fires, occurring until the next 30 years on each property.
“If people look at two houses with the same layout in the same district, then climate risk will or will break (their decision),” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist of Redfin.
As for Ms. Sneddon, following her personal experience, she is now working for Flood Risk Company the FPS Group.
“The risk of flood will only get worse in the coming years, it is therefore essential to discover as much as you can in the risk of flooding for a property,” she advises.
“Floods have a huge impact on communities and mental health. You are supposed to feel safe in your home, it should not be a place of concern and anxiety.”
