Hazard Impact Tracker (HIT)
Multi-sector climate and weather connected anticipatory catastrophe risk management
Cyclones are global convective weather phenomena, associated with intense winds, extreme precipitation, and storm surge in coastal regions. They are frequently devastating to society, both from economic and loss-of-life perspectives.
At the same time, studies show that the deadliest and costliest natural disasters seen in the past 20 years were often well forecasted. The state of scientific knowledge empowers us to anticipate a disaster and take action before it strikes. Such anticipatory action can bring significant benefits across multiple sectors: humanitarian (fewer lives lost), infrastructure (lower reconstruction costs post-event) and finance (effective risk transfer in insurance and reinsurance industries).
While there are strong benefits to anticipatory action, there are also objective barriers to deploying it at scale, most significantly
At the same time, studies show that the deadliest and costliest natural disasters seen in the past 20 years were often well forecasted. The state of scientific knowledge empowers us to anticipate a disaster and take action before it strikes. Such anticipatory action can bring significant benefits across multiple sectors: humanitarian (fewer lives lost), infrastructure (lower reconstruction costs post-event) and finance (effective risk transfer in insurance and reinsurance industries).
While there are strong benefits to anticipatory action, there are also objective barriers to deploying it at scale, most significantly
- Uncertainty as to when and under what conditions pre-emptive action should be triggered
- Inaccessible, inconsistent or incoherent data at a global scale
The Hazard Impact Tracker (HIT) is a novel platform that will host a temporally and spatially continuous global cyclone dataset, and make multi-sector analytics accessible via a responsive user interface. We aim to empower private customers (insurers, reinsurers) and aid agencies alike to effectively respond to cyclones worldwide.