IMAGECAT'S HURRICANE DAMAGE MAPS AND DATA

For Insurers/ Re-insurers, Cat modeling companies, Financial Institutions

1. URBAN AND BUILDING DAMAGE MAPS

Wind
1. Impacted Urban Area
Region-wide map showing the boundaries of urban areas sustaining >=cat 3 NOAA windspeed. Available for US.
  • Format - Delivered as shapefile polygons.
  • Method - Urban areas identified by classifying up-to-date Landsat imagery.
  • Accuracy - ~75%
  • Benefits – Rapid and independent estimate of impact area, using first available NOAA wind data. Dataset is not publicly available
2. Classified Neighborhood Wind Damage
Neighborhood-level map showing the boundaries of complete, major, moderate, minor/no damage in populated areas with >=cat 3 NOAA windspeed. Available for US and potentially other global locations.
  • Format - Delivered as shapefile polygons and class attribute table.
  • Method - Produced using ‘after’ high-resolution optical satellite imagery
  • Accuracy - On a per-neighborhood basis ~65%
  • Benefits – Rapid independent assessment of building damage intensity, developed using scientifically-based proprietary remote sensing damage scale. Delivered before FEMA assessments. Dataset is not publicly available.
3. Percent (%) hurricane building damage
Zone-based map showing % of damaged buildings in 0.5kmx0.5km grids within populated areas sustaining >=cat 3 NOAA windspeed. Available for US and potentially other global locations.
  • Format - Delivered as shapefile polygons and class attribute table.
  • Method - Produced using ‘after’ high-resolution optical satellite imagery
  • Accuracy - On a per-neighborhood basis ~80%
  • Benefits - Rapid independent assessment of building damage statistics. Not available from other sources. Dataset is not publicly available.
4. Classified building wind damage using proprietary remote sensing damage scale
Per-building map and count of complete, major, moderate, minor/none damage in populated areas with >=cat 3 NOAA windspeed. Available for US and potentially other global locations.
  • Format - Delivered as shapefile points and class attribute table. Can be resampled to User-specified zones (e.g. zipcode). Potentially available for other global locations.
  • Method - Produced using ‘after’ high-resolution optical satellite imagery
  • Accuracy - On a per building basis ~80%
  • Benefits – First available damage assessment on per-building basis, developed using scientifically-based proprietary remote sensing damage scale. Not available from other sources. Dataset is not publicly available.

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FLOOD
5. Flooded Area and Boundary
Area of flood inundation and surrounding boundary. Exclusive ImageCat/MDA product. Available across the US, throughout Europe, and potentially for other global locations.
  • Flooded area boundary
  • Method - Produced using ‘before’ and ‘after’ Radarsat (owned and operated by MDA) standard/fine beam imagery
  • Accuracy - area ~80%; boundary 90-95% with 500m and 100% within 1km
  • Benefits – Rapid independent assessment of flood extent. Exclusive ImageCat/MDA product, with discounted Radarsat imagery pricing. Dataset is not publicly available.

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SURGE
6. Surge Boundary or Tsunami Inundation Limit
Boundary defining landward extent of surge from shoreline. Available across the US and potentially for other global locations.
  • Format - Delivered as shapefile polygons. ImageCat product.
  • Method - Produced using ‘after’ high-resolution optical satellite
  • Accuracy – 80%
  • Benefits – Rapid and independent assessment of surge extent. Dataset is not publicly available.

2. HURRICANE WIND DATA

ADVISORIES
1. NOAA Storm Tracker Data
Storm advisories, track maps, 3-day and 5-day storm tracks, strom swath and windpeed forecast. Available for US Gulf Atlantic coast.
  • Format - Delivered as shapefile polygons.
  • Method - Produced using NOAA hurricane and tropical storm wind data.
  • Accuracy – 95%
  • Benefits – Input to probabilistic wind damage prediction tools, tracking storm position before the storm hits populated and areas of interest, client update material, assessing accuracy of in-field wind measurement and estimates.

3. IN-FIELD DAMAGE SURVEYS & VALIDATION DATA

WIND, FLOOD, AND SURGE
1. In-field ground based damage survey using CatVIEWERTM
Rapid ground-based damage assessment to buildings and other high-value structures. In-field survey of damage to buildings, infrastructure and high-value commercial/industrial structures. GPS-referenced video and photographs collected using VIEWS system, covering client-specified areas. Up to 2,500 buildings imaged per day. Available for the US and Europe.
  • Format – Detailed GPS-referenced ground-based video and photographs.
  • Delivered with VIEWS viewing software and base-layer of satellite imagery.
  • Photographs can be shown in GoogleEarth.
  • Method – Video and photographic damage data captured by in-field team, using CatVIEWER™ field data collection and viewing software. Data collected from slow
  • Benefits – Stop the video at any point along the GPS trail, and jump to the in-field video/photograph to see how buildings performed. Search for video/ photographs for a given address. Dataset is not publicly available.
2. 1st-For-Damage Aerial Survey
Rapid aerial assessment for mapping the widespread distribution of damage, or assessing damage to individual buildings. 1st-for-damage images captured and delivered within 24-48 hours of the event for client-specified areas. Images served through VIEWS viewing software. Available across the US and potentially for other global locations.
  • Format - 5cm resolution aerial survey of damage across hurricane-affected areas.
  • Delivered with VIEWS viewing software showing flight path.
  • Method – GPS-referenced aerial images captured by in-field team.
  • Benefits – Usually first available damage dataset available after event. Stop the video at any point along the flight path, and jump to the image frame to see how buildings performed. Search image frames for a given address. Dataset is not publicly available.