RMS, 100 Resilient Cities partner to quantify, manage natural hazard risks

San Francisco will become the first city to use RMS models and technology as part of a new partnership between RMS and 100 Resilient Cities (100RC), pioneered by The Rockefeller Foundation.

Announced at the 2014 Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting this week, the partnership will allow cities in 100RC Network to access the RMS exposure and risk management platform and its catastrophe models to help make well-informed decisions about managing and mitigating natural hazard risk, notes a statement from catastrophe risk management firm RMS.

“Natural catastrophes are a major driver of risk for many of the cities we are working with, and RMS’ models and technology will enable them to better understand that risk as the foundation for achieving resilience,” Michael Berkowitz, president of 100RC, says in the statement.

San Francisco will be the first city in 100RC to use the models and technology. “In San Francisco, we have already made a significant investment in modelling-expected losses from future earthquake scenarios, which has informed multiple public policy decisions,” reports Patrick Otellini, chief resilience officer for San Francisco. “RMS’s science and technology will enable us to use modelling more dynamically to improve our understanding of risk, to analyze the benefits of potential mitigation investments and to respond effectively to actual events.”

RMS reports that its technology can be used in a variety of ways to increase the resilience of cities, including by developing high-quality data on exposures, improving understanding of risk, and prioritizing mitigation investments.

With regard to communicating risk, RMS suggests notes that if cities are armed with data and analysis, they can more effectively share information on exposures and risks to motivate communities to prepare for natural hazards.

In addition, “with consistent and easily updateable information on all exposures, cities can regularly refresh their risk assessments to reflect achievements in improving the building stock, as well as growth in overall exposures to measure progress over time,” the statement adds.

“As a company headquartered in the San Francisco Bay Area, we are pleased that San Francisco will be the first city to use our models and technology and we are looking forward to working with other cities around the world, including those who are at an earlier stage in their efforts to quantify their risk and take steps to prepare for future events,” says Paul VanderMarck, RMS’s chief products officer.

100RC seeks to help 100 cities around the world build resilience to shocks such as catastrophic events, as well as chronic stresses such as climate change.