Zurich Insurance Flood Resilience Program

Transcription

1 Zurich Insurance Flood Resilience Program Helping communities understand and protect themselves from floods Urban Flood Risk Management, Sept 2014 Michael Szönyi, Zurich Risk Engineering

2 The flood resilience program is a key focus area of Zurich s corporate responsibility (CR) strategy

3 Why flood resilience? Floods affect more people globally than any other types of natural hazard in fact floods and related issues affect more people than earthquake, tornado, drought and hurricanes put together. Flood risks are increasingly interconnected and interdependent and cannot be enhanced by one stakeholder alone There is an opportunity to innovate and promote pre-event risk reduction instead of post-event flood relief By bringing together partners with unique skills and expertise in hazard and risk management we can identify new and innovative solutions to preevent risk reduction

4 What are we doing differently? Knowledge for action - Research and modeling - Influence - Scientific credibility Global Reach - Community presence - Scale and reach - Influence and advocacy Catalyze - Risk engineering - Financial resources - Influence and advocacy Innovation & Technical Advice Methodologies & tools Technical Innovation - Small and agile - Innovation and ideas piloting - Solutions catalogue

5 Our current community & research activities are looking at flood risk in different locations and settings Rural community flood resilience programs in region of Tabasco, Mexico Study of flood insurance and mitigation behaviors in New York, USA Post Event Review of the Central European Floods in June 2013 Flash floods & Early Warning System Analysis in Koshi & Karnali river basins, Nepal Urban & rural community flood resilience programs in Lima & Piura, Peru Urban & Rural community flood resilience programs in West Java, Indonesia Recurrent flooding & livelihoods program in Bangladesh

6 How to measure resilience? Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance

7 Motivation Why measure resilience? Many attempts to define and measure resilience No «one size fits all» - audience and context dependent Our motivation - Demonstrate the impact of our intervention on the ground - Strong belief in efficiency and effectiveness of pre-event mitigation no general measurement framework for disaster resilience has been empirically verified yet UNDP, Feb 14 Our aim address this measurement gap Challenge: How is resilience in an urban space different from rural resilience? What is your definition of resilience? Is «resilience» the new «risk»?

8 Defining our approach Definition of «flood resilience» Definition of «community» Mahendranagar and Prakashpur are neighboring wards Both split by the Koshi river Communities on the left and right banks have more connection than with their administrative neighbors LHS (P+M) and RHS (P+M) are more natural community definitions Challenge: How to define «community» in an urban context? What is a homogeneous community? How do you engage and hold responsible an «informal» urban settler with «no roots»?

9 Comprehensive approach to measure sources of resilience esilience Robustness Redundancy Resourcefulness Rapidity Challenge: People and floods are the same urban or rural. But working in urban space is different. How to follow participatory approach here?

10 Risk management methodology Category Factors Grading Human Capital Factors: sources of resilience; Category: made up of # factors; each factor contains one or several R s A, B, C or D (or E) Social Capital.... Natural Capital.... Physical Capital.... Financial Capital.... Measurement principles Hazard & Risk Engineering expertise Resilience Score Challenge: Need for long-term planning decisions in urban space. Yet future is uncertain and solutions need to be adaptive to changing environment. Statistics vs forward looking

11 Ground reality testing

12 So what? How to transfer into the urban space People and floods are the same rural or urban But urban space works differently CHALLENGES! The actor s challenge: Flood Risk Management and Resilience Transferable? The definition challenge: What is an urban community? The informal sector challenge: Parallel urban worlds The participation challenge - How to use the bottomup participatory approach while integrating city planners and decision makers needs and capacities? The design challenge: Urban infrastructure and design (life cycle) approaches The achievement challenge: What tools and timelines do we need to achieve impact, and lasting impact?

13 Thank you Corporate Responsibility

14 Disclaimer This publication has been prepared by Zurich Insurance Group Ltd and the opinions expressed therein are those of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd as of the date of writing and are subject to change without notice. This publication has been produced solely for informational purposes. The analysis contained and opinions expressed herein are based on numerous assumptions. Different assumptions could result in materially different conclusions. All information contained in this publication have been compiled and obtained from sources believed to be reliable and credible but no representation or warranty, express or implied, is made by Zurich Insurance Group Ltd or any of its subsidiaries (the Group ) as to their accuracy or completeness. Opinions expressed and analyses contained herein might differ from or be contrary to those expressed by other Group functions or contained in other documents of the Group, as a result of using different assumptions and/or criteria. This publication is not intended to be legal, underwriting, financial, investment or any other type of professional advice. Persons requiring advice should consult an independent adviser. The Group disclaims any and all liability whatsoever resulting from the use of or reliance upon this publication. Certain statements in this publication are forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans, developments or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause actual results, developments and plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the for-ward-looking statements. The subject matter of this publication is also not tied to any specific insurance product nor will it ensure coverage under any insurance policy. This publication may not be reproduced either in whole, or in part, without prior written permission of Zurich Insurance Group Ltd, Mythenquai 2, 8002 Zurich, Switzerland. Zurich Insurance Group Ltd expressly prohibits the distribution of this publication by or to third parties for any reason. Neither Zurich Insurance Group Ltd nor any of its subsidiaries accept liability for any loss arising from the use or distribution of this presentation. This publication is for distribution only under such circumstances as may be permitted by applicable law and regulations. This publication does not constitute an offer or an invitation for the sale or purchase of securities in any jurisdiction.