Document Type

Theses, Masters

Master Thesis

Master thesis

Rights

Available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike 4.0 International Licence

Disciplines

Business and Management.

Publication Details

Successfully submitted for the award of Master of Philosophy (M.Phil.) to the Technological University Dublin, 2007.

Abstract

The motivation for the research arose from the significant increase in flooding events that have occurred in Ireland and other countries over the last decade. These floods can cause major damage to properties and have resulted in significant losses for insurance companies. There was an expression of interest from within the Irish insurance industry to utilise Geographic Information Systems (GIS) for enhancing the value of their customer data and with the recent losses they began considering using GIS for mapping flood prone areas. Anecdotal evidence suggested that the availability of accurate, up to date and relevant data to support a predictive flood model using hydrological information is insufficient in Ireland. The research explores the relationship between data information and knowledge and the role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in capturing and analysing clients’ geographical characteristics. The application of GIS in the Irish insurance market to analyse high risk flooding is considered, and the resulting pricing implications for customers within the Tolka river valley. An overview of the hydrological cycle and the processes that occur within are examined. The historical developments to model this environment, the classifications of these model types and there applications, strengths and weaknesses are also discussed. The potential application for geographic information systems in hydrological modelling is then examined. The research objectives are to; • Identify the stakeholders in flood management and insurance and the interaction between the organisations. • Identify the availability and quality of data to support flood modelling in Ireland • Investigate the effect of flooding on insurance prices. • Investigate the impact of flood defences on the price of flood insurance in flood prone areas. • Predict the areas prone to flooding. • Investigate the risk of flooding to an individual. • Investigate the insurance price for an individual. The research design is divided into three phases; the exploratory, survey and modelling phases. The initial phase of the research was exploratory and used qualitative methods to conduct and analyse interviews, the second and third phases employed quantitative methods to conduct a survey and develop a mathematical model for flood prediction and price assessment respectfully.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21427/D7X03Q

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Document Type

Master thesis