Only Finance.com® - Experian develops first groundwater floodmap

Home Insurance - Experian develops first groundwater floodmap - 20/12/2007

Home insurance firms were given a big boost in their ascertaining of flood risk for individual customers yesterday, with information services firm Experian's release of a special new map.

The chart, known as the Groundwater Flood Model, shows areas of the UK that are particularly at risk from deluges of the type which caused big damage in parts of England this summer due to rising groundwater levels rather than rainfall alone.

As insurance premiums are calculated on risk, home insurance firms find any extra information that they can get on how likely areas are to flood very helpful.

Areas vulnerable to groundwater flooding - which sees water tables rising to surface level - are not the same as flood plain areas, being far harder to map accurately.

Managing director at Experian, Avis Easteal, commented: "Until the last few years, groundwater flooding was not recognised as a distinct event as it was often masked by surface water - previously, local knowledge of these events was the only guide to an area's susceptibility to this kind of flooding, but this was often patchy and unreliable.

"However, groundwater flooding has played its part in the rising costs of meeting flood claims over the years."

Experian developed its map with the help of the British Geological Survey - and added its own demographic data.