Original text here from Patrice Bernard (LinkedIn)
At the intersection of its unrivaled expertise in mapping and artificial intelligence, Alphabet (Google) is actively developing advanced solutions for predicting and assisting in the remediation of natural disasters and their impacts through its X division, which is dedicated to its most ambitious projects.
Regardless of current efforts to mitigate it in the long term, climate change is now a certainty, along with its consequences, including the inevitable dramatic increase in the frequency of hazardous events, a fact we are almost daily witnessing globally. Alongside environmental efforts, humanity urgently needs means to manage these episodes that threaten entire populations.
The Bellwether initiative tackles this problem head-on from two complementary angles. Initially focusing on the most frequent and devastating types of disasters—fires and floods—it develops predictive models that estimate the likelihood of such events over a long period (up to 5 years), while also creating tools to quickly identify damages and focus rescue efforts post-event.
The chosen approach is highly sophisticated, primarily based on the accumulation of aerial photography and includes, among other things, an analysis of changes over time in the earth's surface, both natural and man-made, along with a detailed inventory of monitored elements (such as types of vegetation, building structures, prevailing winds) to assess risks as accurately as possible.
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Bellwether’s mission is twofold. On one hand, it provides stakeholders—citizens, public agencies, private companies (including insurers)—with visibility and transparency about their exposure levels, enabling them to anticipate disasters and thus prepare for them more effectively.
The second aspect of the initiative kicks in when disaster strikes: it facilitates rapid and prioritized response to minimize damage (both material and human), a capability that the U.S. National Guard has adopted, saving hours previously spent manually searching for relevant maps and identifying critical intervention points to optimize their response.
Given that climate change is already underway, that nothing will significantly alter its course for decades, and that its effects on our lives and activities will become increasingly overwhelming, the development of prevention and assistance solutions like those from Alphabet X is becoming as crucial as environmental protection measures and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This marks a new frontier, especially for the insurance sector.
