Natural Catastrophe Risk Management and Modelling: A Practitioners Guide

This book covers both the practical and theoretical aspects of catastrophe modelling for insurance industry practitioners and public policymakers. Written by authors with both academic and industry experience it also functions as an excellent graduate–level text and overview of the field.

Ours is a time of unprecedented levels of risk from both natural and anthropogenic sources. Fortunately, it is also an era of relatively inexpensive technologies for use in assessing those risks. The demand from both commercial and public interests including (re)insurers, NGOs, global disaster management agencies, and local authorities for sophisticated catastrophe risk assessment tools has never been greater, and contemporary catastrophe modelling satisfies that demand.

Combining the latest research with detailed coverage of state–of–the–art catastrophe modelling techniques and technologies, this book delivers the knowledge needed to use, interpret, and build catastrophe models, and provides greater insight into catastrophe modelling s enormous potential and possible limitations.

The first book containing the detailed, practical knowledge needed to support practitioners as effective catastrophe risk modellers and managers Includes hazard, vulnerability and financial material to provide the only independent, comprehensive overview of the subject, accessible to students and practitioners alike Demonstrates the relevance of catastrophe models within a practical, decision–making framework and illustrates their many applications Includes contributions from many of the top names in the field, globally, from industry, academia, and government

Natural Catastrophe Risk Management and Modelling: A Practitioner s Guide is an important working resource for catastrophe modelling analysts and developers, actuaries, underwriters, and those working in compliance or regulatory functions related to catastrophe risk. It is also valuable for scientists and engineers seeking to gain greater insight into catastrophe risk management and its applications.

List of Contributors

Foreword

Chapter 1 Fundamentals

Chapter 2 Applications of Catastrophe Modelling

Chapter 3 The Perils In Brief

Chapter 4 Building catastrophe models

Chapter 5 Developing a view of risk

Chapter 6 Summary and the future

Index

Glossary

Kirsten Mitchell–Wallace, PhD is EMEA Regional Head of Catastrophe Management at SCOR, Zürich, Switzerland

Matthew Jones, PhD is Director at Cat Risk Intelligence, UK

John Hillier, PhD is Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at Loughborough University, Loughborough, UK

Matthew Foote is Group Head of Exposure Management at Argo Group International Holdings, London, UK