With flooding on the rise around the world, FM Global has introduced a way for companies to help manage this increasing and potentially costly risk to their businesses.
FM Global’s new interactive Global Flood Map presents businesses with a powerful new strategic planning tool, and risk managers with a way to address natural hazard exposure around the planet. A version of the new map is available for use by businesses and the public at no cost.
The Global Flood Map provides a worldwide view of high and moderatehazard flood zones across the globe, even in areas where previously available information was unreliable, inconsistent or non-existent. The global flood map is meant to help accurately answer the question ‘Are your locations in or out of potential flood zones?’
“Flood is one of the costliest commercial property risks, and it’s only getting worse with climate change, globalization and urbanization,” said Brion Callori, senior vice president and manager, engineering and research at FM Global. “Companies with properties anywhere in the world can now quickly identify the base flood risk for all of their facilities on a globally consistent, apples-to-apples basis, at a resolution of just 90 meters by 90 meters.”
The new map can make initial loss-prevention and site-location decisions significantly easier. Executives and risk managers no longer need to locate, review and compare different maps from multiple countries that employ a variety of methodologies. Nor must they contact disparate agencies or make dozens of site visits just to gather basic information about whether particular properties reside in flood zones.
Users can now quickly determine whether their business locations reside in a flood zone simply by typing in physical addresses. The map identifies:
High hazards: If a location is in a 100-year flood zone, meaning it has a 1 percent chance per year of experiencing a flood, it will be highlighted in pink.
Moderate hazards: If a location is in a 500-year flood zone, meaning it has a 0.2 percent chance per year of experiencing flood, it will be highlighted in yellow.
The map presents results in two zoomable view options: road and aerial (includes buildings).
