Abstract
 Underwriting and Quantifying Catastrophe Risks Using GIS Track: Business GIS Author(s): Kevin Huang Underwriters in insurance and reinsurance companies have been striving to quantify the natural and man-made catastrophe risks taken by them. Even though there are a handful modeling companies that provide software and services just for the purpose of catastrophe modeling and pricing, their products are often limited in geographical coverage and lack of modeling capability for certain perils. GIS, with its unique advantage in spatial analysis and visualization, has proven to be a powerful tool for underwriters to better understand and quantify catastrophe risks. This paper demonstrates a number of examples where GIS can be used to provide assistance in underwriting non-traditional risks, such as terrorism exposure accumulation, volcano and lava flow analysis, brushfire risk quantification, and hurricane risk visualization. GIS should always be kept as one of the tools available to underwriters. Kevin Huang ACE Tempest Re Research & Development 30 Woodbourne Ave Hamilton HM08 BM Phone: 441-298-9503 E-mail: kevin.huang@tempestre.com |
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