Infoterra Ltd, a leader in the provision of geospatial products and services, is to launch a unique flood event mapping service to help UK insurance firms respond quickly to flood events. The new Infoterra service will help insurers to improve their claims validation process, and provide customers with more competitive premiums for homes in ‘at risk’ areas that aren’t ever actually affected by floods.
Using exclusive radar imagery from the recently-launched TerraSAR-X satellite that can see through clouds and storms, Infoterra will provide insurance firms with extremely high resolution radar images that offer accuracy down to just 1 metre to show the full extent of flooding. Infoterra’s geospatial specialists will combine flood mapping from TerraSAR-X with existing aerial imagery and OS MasterMap™ data to create composite images that can clearly show the impact of floods on specific postcodes and properties.
TerraSAR-X’s satellite radar technology is particularly applicable for flood event mapping as it is weather-independent and offers fast revisit times to track the scale of a flood’s rise and fall. For insurance firms it provides extremely accurate flood footprints to help in the estimation of the spatial height and extent of flood damage. Infoterra’s radar images will also support insurance companies in flood modelling and scenario generation, based on the analysis of estimated maximum losses from historic flood data.
“Infoterra Ltd holds the exclusive UK distribution rights for imagery from the TerraSAR-X satellite. Since its launch in June this year it has proved exceptional at capturing events – such as floods – on the earth’s surface,” commented Dr Andy Wells, Director of Sales for Infoterra Ltd. “We believe the combination of TerraSAR-X imagery and our geospatial expertise can provide UK insurance firms with extremely accurate data on flooding, which will prove invaluable given the estimated £3 billion plus of flood claims resulting from the recent flooding earlier this Summer.
“Our flood event mapping service will be the first of a range of different geospatial services that Infoterra will offer using satellite radar imagery from TerraSAR-X,” he continued. “It also clearly demonstrates our expertise in combining the right technologies and data sources with specialist in-house skills. This will create entirely new geospatial services that can deliver real-value in terms of risk management and decision-making support.”
In addition to radar imagery, Infoterra offers accurate height data for both land and properties. This allows the development of highly detailed flood models to improve the definition of risk from both over ground and underground water flows. Infoterra already provides insurance companies with information that has been used to develop models and maps to accurately predict and monitor risks from subsidence and coastal erosion.
A high resolution Infoterra image showing the scale and extent of the River Severn flooding at Tewkesbury in late July this year is available from Email Contact. The image is based on radar imagery from the TerraSAR-X satellite combine with GeoPerspectives aerial photography.
Source: Infoterra