Example Geo Risks Research

Reinsurance and natural hazards have always been closely linked, a fact evident to Munich Re's founder, Carl Thieme and others not least as a result of the earthquake which destroyed large areas of San Francisco in 1906.

Following a series of costly natural catastrophes in the seventies - such as Cyclone Tracy in Darwin, Australia and a number of earthquakes in California and Central America - an internal unit was set up in 1974 to research natural risks, then called the "Joint Office for Natural Hazards".

During the eighties, insured losses worldwide rose dramatically with the Munich hailstorm in 1984, the winter storm in the UK in 1987, Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 and Hurricane Hugo in 1989 in the Caribbean as well as a series of winter storms in Europe in 1990. The catastrophes seemed to be getting worse year by year, and in the 1990s the pattern of the risk worldwide indicated that weather-related catastrophes were on the increase around the globe.

The unit, which has since been renamed Geo Risks Research or GEO for short, is now made up of three specialist departments which, apart from the environment and sustainability, deal with the main natural hazards of earthquake, windstorm and flood. GEO currently employs 23 staff in all - predominantly natural scientists. This growth also reflected the demand from other companies for the unit's services, and Geo Risks Research has always been regarded as a talent forge for ambitious interns and students writing undergraduate diplomas or doctoral dissertations who subsequently go on to find jobs in the insurance industry all over the world.

Over time, more and more service products have been added to the range which Munich Re offers its clients. The third edition of the World Map of Natural Hazards has now been published and it is also available on CD-ROM ("World of Natural Hazards"), some 67,000 copies having been distributed. Together with a large range of training courses, NATHAN, Geo Risks Research's web-based knowledge platform, makes an important contribution to know-how transfer. The services offered are developed and implemented in Geoinformatics and Communications.