A Building Inventory Database for Coastlines at Risk

With population growth, US coastal communities have been growing in recent years. More people tend to live along the coasts because of the unique recreational and economic opportunities offered by these regions. The value of coastal properties along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts has experienced a compound annual growth rate of about 4% over the past decade. People and assets in the coastal regions, however, are exposed to a rising risk from weather and climate-related hazards such as hurricanes, storm surge, and flooding. In the same vein, with rising sea levels and a possible increase in the frequency of wet storms like Harvey and Florence, insurance companies and decision-making organizations need resilient strategies for coastal risk management more than ever before. As a leading natural hazards catastrophe modeling company, AIR Worldwide (AIR) developed the first US building inventory database in 1987 that provides a high-resolution view of properties including the physical characteristics of structures and their respective replacement values. This paper focuses on the importance of property databases as the foundation for catastrophe model loss estimates. It is described how AIR manages to realistically capture the estimation of properties at risk by leveraging available resources. AIR’s view of risk and insights on the US coastal properties and common construction practices are put in perspective.