Parametric and index-based disaster risk transfer firm Global Parametrics has partnered with ERN and Ingeniar to help design the first risk transfer parametric product for urban landslides in Manizales, Colombia.
Source: John Jairo Bonilla/EPA
ERN is a Latin American specialist in catastrophe risk models, while Ingeniar has been the main private advisor for the local government of Manizales and the Autonomous Environmental Authority.
Together with Global Parametrics, they will support the use of the Natural Disasters Fund (NDF) of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) to develop the first ever parametric risk transfer product for urban landslides.
The project will aim to provide rapid payouts for the immediate recovery tasks in the aftermath of a landslide, which has a direct impact on more than 260,000 vulnerable people.
To define the trigger of the parametric instrument, a rainfall triggered landslide model will be developed, making use of the historical records of the rain-gauge network of Manizales and the large catalogue of historical events.
Using the results of this model, Global Parametrics will structure the final product, with the expectation that the risk transfer capacity will be available from NDF and the international reinsurance and capital markets.
“We are very pleased to join efforts with ERN and Ingeniar to develop this type of solutions,” said Hector Ibarra, CEO of Global Parametrics. “We see this project as a great opportunity to develop an innovative solution that promotes resilience for catastrophe risk and extreme climatic events.”
Mario Ordaz, President of the Board of ERN, also commented: “We are very enthusiastic to collaborate in a project with such potential, that can disrupt the way on which catastrophe risk is transferred, besides benefitting the most vulnerable communities. It is of great interest for us, at ERN, to be able to use high quality scientific data with the cooperation of the local institutions of Manizales.”
Omar D. Cardona. CEO of Ingeniar Ltd., added: “Having detailed inventories of landslides by the City and Corpocaldas, besides records of previous rains for each case, together with a real-time warning system and hazard models developed by the National University of Colombia, makes Manizales an ideal natural laboratory.”
