RMS Releases Germany River Flood Model

Model Release Marks Next Phase in Pioneering Flood Modeling for Europe

Newark, Calif. – September 12, 2006 – Risk Management Solutions (RMS), the world’s leading provider of products and services for the management of natural hazard risk, today released its new high-resolution probabilistic Germany River Flood model. The RMS® Germany Flood Model builds on the success of the company’s U.K. and Belgium modeling experience to assess both off and on-flood plain risks, providing high-resolution capability to price and underwrite policies and manage portfolio aggregations.

Losses on the major river floodplains and losses caused by off-floodplain flooding are fully represented in the model, which employs a numerically-based long-term rainfall simulation methodology that captures flooding to all the major river basins of Germany: the Rhine, Weser, Elbe, and Danube. Time of year, soil conditions, temperature, evaporation, and topography are among the many factors accounted for in a time-stepping rainfall-runoff methodology.

River flood hazard is captured using the proprietary RMS variable resolution grid (VRG), allowing data analysis to be conducted at a higher resolution than postal codes. Modeled flood depths take into account the presence and failure of defenses, and the impact of flooding and deliberate use of flood water storage areas in reducing downstream flows. In addition, the use of a high-resolution Digital Terrain Model allows flooding behavior to accurately reflect complex topography, including changes in surface elevation and roughness.

“Germany has experienced several episodes of catastrophic flooding since the early 1990s, most recently with the devastating events of summer 2002,” said Jörg Müller, vice president of the Continental Europe industry practice group at RMS. “This crucial tool provides a long-term probabilistic view for both on and off-floodplain areas, becoming a valuable addition to existing flood rating tools in Germany, such as the ZURS rating zones. This will empower our clients to accurately assess their risk in Germany to make advanced portfolio management and underwriting decisions.”

Rather than building discrete event sets for each individual European country, RMS has developed an event set covering Western and Central Europe, extending from the U.K. through Scandinavia, through France and Germany, and across the Alps. As the company continues to roll out flood models for additional European countries, this pan-European approach will allow clients to model the correlation of risk between modeled countries throughout the continent.