Zurich Extends Previsico Partnership to Boost Flood Resilience Across the UK Public Sector

Previsico, the live flood warning InsurTech, and Zurich Municipal have announced a new partnership to boost flood risk resilience across the public sector. The move will provide Zurich Municipal’s customers with a surface water flood warning system for the first time and free of charge. This innovative solution will provide warnings for insured properties at risk of imminent flooding, as well as providing local authorities with a new district flood warning service for roads and parks. This comes as flood risk in the UK continues to increase, as highlighted in the UK Climate Change Risk Assessment Technical Report, which states that unless we take further action, under a 2°C by 2100 warming scenario annual damages from flooding for non-residential properties across the UK is expected to increase by 27% by 2050.

Previsico’s solution uses a combination of rainfall nowcasts and forecasts to deliver continuously updated warnings. It will be a game-changer for the public sector, particularly supporting local authorities who are responsible for local flood response plans. Zurich will fund the service, enabling its customers to reduce significant losses and disruption for the general public. Surface water flooding makes up almost 60% of UK flood risk, with Environment Agency warnings only covering the other 40% for major rivers and the sea. Previsico’s system will offer 48 hour forecasts every three hours at specific district level. As soon as the system identifies a location is at risk of surface water flooding, a warning is sent to a relevant contact. This means that resilience measures can be put in place and valuable assets such as property can be protected or art and vehicles moved.

Jonathan Jackson, CEO, Previsico, said: “This extension to our partnership follows the success of our work with Zurich in the private sector with firms such as BT. It will enable Zurich to provide warnings down to individual property level (25m) up to 48-hours in advance for insured properties, a first for the public sector, as well as giving local government support with warnings for roads and parks. It also delivers against Zurich’s ESG strategy.”

Andrew Jepp, Managing Director of Zurich Municipal, said: “Surface water flooding is a growing risk which we know causes major disruption to our customers and the services they provide. At Zurich Municipal we are continually looking at ways we can support our customers understand and reduce the risks they face. Our new partnership with Previsico will help our customers to take targeted action to build resilience in their communities.”

Zurich Municipal works closely with Zurich Resilience Solutions, which helps companies and the public sector to manage their risk through undertaking flood risk analysis and advising customers on implementing resilience measures. Previsico’s next-generation live flood forecasting solution, brings together the latest weather data from the Met Office and IBM. Its advanced flood modelling capabilities address the increasing global issue of surface water flooding for insurers, their public sector and major corporate clients.