Spotted: Floods are among the costliest and most destructive of natural disasters. And as climate change picks up pace, flooding, including urban flooding, is expected to increase dramatically. Fluctuating weather patterns also mean that many floods are missed by conventional weather forecasting techniques.

To help insurers and building owners, Loughborough University spin-out Previsico has developed a real-time forecasting technology that models flooding at a granular level. The company’s models are updated every three hours using a combination of rainfall nowcasts and forecasts.

Using high-quality topographic and hydrological data, the company’s flood simulation software produces fast and accurate representations of how water will flow across flood plains.

The platform also supports the delivery of email warnings and offers a flood dashboard to enable users to visualise how a flood situation evolves over time. Flood forecasts can even be integrated into existing warning systems. 

Previsico’s modelling is aimed at helping governments, aid agencies, commercial property owners, and insurance companies by providing them with actionable information. For insurance companies, the technology helps to mitigate claims costs, supports customers, and improves underwriting performance. 

Other flooding innovations spotted by Springwise include low-cost sensors for real-time monitoring of coastal flooding. Other insurance innovations include insurance payouts based on weather data, and a platform that lets financial institutions forecast climate risk.

Written By: Lisa Magloff