Aon Benfield, the global reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon plc (NYSE:AON), has expanded its Aon Benfield Research academic and industry research collaboration with Ambiental to enhance the firm’s flood model development capabilities.

Ambiental is working with Impact Forecasting – Aon Benfield’s catastrophe model development centre of excellence – to improve the mapping of flood extents using advanced hydrodynamic modeling capability. The Ambiental approach describes the real physical behaviour of flood phenomena with improved accuracy, thus enhancing probabilistic catastrophe models and construction of historical event footprints.

Petr Puncochar, flood model developer at Impact Forecasting, said: “Developing model components that are compatible to high resolution elevation data is a complex task. Our approach is enhanced by using Ambiental’s latest generation of hydrodynamic models for flood extent determination. Working with Ambiental means we can access their knowledge and advanced technology to both support the initial model development work and generate more accurate outcomes for the insurance industry. Also, this cooperation enabled Ambiental to join Aon Benfield Research where flood related partnerships are now playing an important role on par with other longer-established perils such as earthquake and windstorm.”

Dr. Justin Butler, CEO at Ambiental, commented: “We are very enthused by this, our latest collaboration within the global insurance market. Working with Aon Benfield will empower Ambiental’s unique technology to reach new valuable areas within the flood risk and insurance communities for national-scale flood mapping and modeling.

“It is always rewarding to see how the results of our flood knowledge and technology can be used practically to benefit the insurance industry, especially considering the scale of losses from recent extreme flood events internationally. Our hydrodynamic modeling tools use the latest computational techniques to increase processing speed whilst maintaining accuracy and stability so as to meet the demands of insurers, brokers and reinsurers for cost effective, high resolution flood mapping.”

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About Aon Benfield – Aon Benfield, a division of Aon plc, is the world’s leading reinsurance intermediary and full-service capital advisor. We empower our clients to better understand, manage and transfer risk through innovative solutions and personalized access to all forms of global reinsurance capital across treaty, facultative and capital markets. As a trusted advocate, we deliver local reach to the world’s markets, an unparalleled investment in innovative analytics, including catastrophe management, actuarial and rating agency advisory. Through our professionals’ expertise and experience, we advise clients in making optimal capital choices that will empower results and improve operational effectiveness for their business. With more than 80 offices in 50 countries, our worldwide client base has access to the broadest portfolio of integrated capital solutions and services. To learn how Aon Benfield helps empower results, please visit aonbenfield.com.

About Aon – Aon plc (NYSE: AON) is the leading global provider of risk management, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, and human resources solutions and outsourcing services. Through its more than 61,000 colleagues worldwide, Aon unites to empower results for clients in over 120 countries via innovative and effective risk and people solutions and through industry-leading global resources and technical expertise. Aon has been named repeatedly as the world’s best broker, best insurance intermediary, reinsurance intermediary, captives manager and best employee benefits consulting firm by multiple industry sources. Visit www.aon.com for more information on Aon and www.aon.com/manchesterunited to learn about Aon’s global partnership and shirt sponsorship with Manchester United.

About Ambiental – Ambiental is a leading Flood Risk Assessment, Surface Water Drainage and risk modelling consultancy. The company operates internationally and produces high detail flood risk data, flood hazard maps, perils risk data, flood modelling software and reports for insurance companies, the land and property sector, engineers, utilities and city council planning departments. Ambiental’s solutions help clients to save time, reduce risk and mitigate against flood and other environmental impacts.

Ambiental’s core product “Flowroute-i” is a highly efficient, innovative, fast and easy-to-understand solution for predicting the depth, duration and extent of flood risk to individual properties. To date, Ambiental has created and distributed river, storm-surge and surface water (pluvial) flood models for at-risk areas in the UK, USA, Latin America, Europe, Australasia and Asia. Ambiental’s services have also been employed by risk managers, business continuity managers and documentary film makers with features televised on BBC News, Newsnight and UK Channel 4 (Dispatches – Britain Under Water). Ambiental’s expert opinion is regularly sourced and published in leading trade journals.