With flash flooding of basements posing a threat to life^[i]; the subsidence insurance bill for 2022 set to be £219m[ii] and the European windstorms of last year costing Euro3.8m^[iii], it has become imperative for insurance providers to make a full, fast and accurate assessment of environmental risk, from quote to claim.

LexisNexis® Risk Solutions – the data, advanced analytics and technology provider to the UK and Ireland insurance market – today launched a new suite of geospatial intelligence datasets for basements, trees and windstorms to address these weather-related challenges.

LexisNexis® Basements Indicator, Bluesky International Ltd’s National Tree Map™ (NTM)[iv], and LexisNexis® Windstorm Model add to a wide range of existing data solutions to provide insurance providers with a holistic view of property risk for pricing and underwriting. The solutions help identify customers at most risk from imminent or future basement flooding, as well as tree-and wind-related storm damage and subsidence.

How can three new geospatial data sets from LexisNexis Risk Solutions benefit insurance providers?

Basements
LexisNexis® Basements Indicator combines multiple data sources[v] to create a unique attribute that helps property insurance providers identify whether a basement or an underground level may be present in a home or a commercial building.

Trees
Bluesky’s National Tree Map (NTM)[vi] is the first-ever detailed national map of the hundreds of millions of trees across Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. Through LexisNexis Risk Solutions, insurance providers can now understand the location, canopy cover and height of trees 3 metres and taller in the proximity of the properties they are insuring.

Windstorms
LexisNexis® Windstorm Model is a new solution that helps to predict the maximum wind gust speeds as a better predictor for property and structural damage compared to sustained wind speeds. The Windstorm Model will help home insurance, commercial insurance and motor insurance providers to more accurately assess the level of risk to a property or a vehicle across the UK, either in map form using the geospatial data visualisation tool LexisNexis® Map View, or as data enrichment at the point of quote.

Flash flooding is becoming a regular occurrence in urban, high-density areas such as London due to the reduced permeability of surfaces (paved drives, for example), clay soils and ageing drainage and sewage systems[vii]. Indeed, in the Summer of 2022, The Mayor of London urged 45,000 residents living in basement homes to take greater measures to protect themselves and their homes in a flood.[viii] In addition, ‘mega basements’ with high value possessions could pose an additional risk to insurance providers[ix] in flash floods, and where long spells of rain cause groundwater flooding[x] with water seeping into cellars or basements.

Caroline Elliott-Grey, product manager, UK and Ireland, LexisNexis Risk Solutions said:

“Property insurance providers need to plan how they will map the long-term impact of climate change on their books of business. They can start now with LexisNexis Basement Indicator, NTM and LexisNexis Windstorm Model together with more than 40 additional data sets, including perils data down to an individual address.

We are making it as easy as possible for insurance providers to access this data at point of quote via LexisNexis® Informed Quotes and for more detailed risk visualisation through LexisNexis® Map View – our cloud-based geospatial data visualisation tool.

More data means more granularity and spatial accuracy in the predictions, allowing for more accurate pricing, as well as the crucial ability to better manage risk as events unfold.”

 Related Climate Risks – Key Facts:

• Global warming could raise the UK flood damage bill by 20%[xi]
• 1 in 6 homes are at risk of flood[xii]
• Flood claims where drains were unable to cope increased by 211% in the last four years, according to LV=[xiii]
• Basement flood risk is increasing – particularly in London, where 7,328 basements were approved between 2008 and 2019^[xiv]
• Subsidence prone areas are set to double by 2050^[xv]
• The ABI confirmed that last summer’s heatwave led to 18,000 subsidence claims equating to a new claim every 15 minutes during the second half of 2022[xvi].
• Although subsidence claims are rising as temperatures rise, trees are also implicated in 70% of reports of subsidence and heave on clay soil[xvii] making knowledge of their location and height vital with subsidence claims on the increase.[xviii]
• Climate change will also drive an increase in windstorm activity over the U.K. with increased frequency already being seen in recent years. The ABI estimates that future insured losses are expected to increase by 18% within the next 100 years[xix]

Content provided by LexisNexis Risk Solutions.

About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis® Risk Solutions harnesses the power of data and advanced analytics to provide insights that help businesses and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe.

We provide data and technology solutions for a wide range of industries including insurance, financial services, healthcare and government. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, we have offices throughout the world and are part of RELX (LSE: REL/NYSE: RELX), a global provider of information-based and analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

For more information, please visit www.risk.lexisnexis.co.uk and www.relx.com.

References:

[i] https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-warns-londoners-in-basements-about-flooding

[ii] https://www.abi.org.uk/news/news-articles/2023/3/sinking-uk–last-summers-record-breaking-heatwave-leads-to-surge-in-insurance-payouts-for-subsidence/

[iii] https://www.perils.org/news/eur-3-851m-perils-releases-final-loss-estimate-for-european-windstorm-series-of-february-2022

[iv] Product sourced from Bluesky International Limited. Data and Imagery are protected by copyright

[v] Including open-source data and public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0 and subject to: OS data © Crown copyright and database right [2023]; Royal Mail data © Royal Mail copyright and database right [2023]; and National Statistics data.

[vi] Product sourced from Bluesky International Limited. Data and Imagery are protected by copyright

[vii] https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/research/climate/understanding-climate/uk-and-global-extreme-events-heavy-rainfall-and-floods

https://www.ncl.ac.uk/press/articles/archive/2019/08/commentheatwavesandflashfloods/

[viii] https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-warns-londoners-in-basements-about-flooding

[ix] https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5703283/Map-reveals-4-650-mega-basements-dug-beneath-London-homes.html

[x] https://environmentagency.blog.gov.uk/2019/12/23/what-is-groundwater-flooding/

[xi] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-64866058

[xii] https://reachandrescue.com/flood-statistics/

[xiii] https://www.lv.com/insurance/press/flooding-increase-of-flash-flood-risk

[xiv] https://www.ncl.ac.uk/apl/news/item/london-basement-extensions/

[xv] https://www.bgs.ac.uk/datasets/geoclimate-ukcp09-and-ukcp18/

[xvi] https://www.abi.org.uk/news/news-articles/2023/3/sinking-uk–last-summers-record-breaking-heatwave-leads-to-surge-in-insurance-payouts-for-subsidence/

[xvii] https://bluesky-world.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Bluesky_White_Paper_NTM.pdf

[xviii] https://www.lv.com/insurance/press/lv-warns-extreme-temperatures-will-see-subsidence-and-fire-claims-rise

[xix] https://www.abi.org.uk/globalassets/files/publications/public/property/2017/abi_final_report.pdf