Abstract:
This presentation delves into the intricacies of disaster insurance and catastrophe models, crucial components in navigating the modern landscape of risks and uncertainties. It explores prominent public disaster insurance programs, highlighting their role in mitigating risks. Additionally, the structure of insurance markets is discussed, emphasizing the interplay between state regulations, policy distribution, and risk transfer chains. The significance of catastrophe models in managing natural catastrophe risks is underscored, elucidating their historical context and core functionalities. A detailed breakdown of a standard catastrophe model focuses on hazards, vulnerability, exposure, and the financial implications of disasters. Focusing on meteorological perils, particularly Tropical Cyclones, the presentation examines forecasting capabilities, mitigation strategies, and their integration into industry catastrophe models. The construction of the hazard component of a catastrophe model is emphasized, including discussions on deterministic versus probabilistic modeling, hazard severity representation, and time-dependent hazard modeling. Closing the presentation, we address open questions and contemporary issues in catastrophe risk management, emphasizing the importance of non-proprietary data sources from entities like NOAA, NASA, and USGS. This comprehensive exploration equips the audience with valuable insights and ideas on how earth sciences can be applied in the insurance industry.