CAR offers a comprehensive approach to risk assessment in the built environment by combining two areas of expertise: hazard modelling and building stock vulnerability assessment. These two disciplines are brought together to predict losses from natural and man-made hazards in terms of human casualties, damage to buildings and contents, and business interruption.

Hazard Modelling

CAR offers expertise in a wide range of hazards including the following

• Natural Hazards
  • Earthquake
  • Volcanic eruption
  • Tropical and temperate windstorm
  • Flood
  • Subsidence
  • Hailstorm
  • Conflagration
• Man-made Hazards
  • Burglary
  • Unexploded ordnance (UXO) [Read more »]

Building stock vulnerability modelling

A key element of the CAR methodology is the systematic classification, mapping and vulnerability assessment of the building stock in hazard-prone areas. This allows hazard intensity to be converted into estimated losses. With its background in engineering, CAR offers a comprehensive understanding of construction technology and building codes. This knowledge is applied to the classification of the building stock into different typologies and the assignment of vulnerabilities for each building type and peril. By mapping the geographic distribution of the various building types, vulnerability can be assessed for a geographic zone as well as for an individual building type.

Client base

CAR has 20 years experience in the field of risk assessment, advising a prestigious and international client base on projects in some 25 countries and 5 continents. Private sector clients range from reinsurers and reinsurance brokers, primary insurers and building societies, to multinational corporations in the aerospace, petrochemical and transport infrastructure sectors. Public sector clients include national, regional and local governments, as well as international agencies such as the United Nations and European Commission.

CAR’s global network

With its roots in the University of Cambridge, CAR co-operates with a global network of research institutions and specialists, enabling it to assemble multi-disciplinary project teams swiftly and economically, and to bring together some of the best data-gathering and analysis expertise in the field of risk assessment.

Selected projects since 2000

• Willis Research Network (WRN) Client: Willis Group, 2006-. [Read more »]
• Global Earthquake Vulnerability Estimation System (GEVES) Client: PartnerRe, 2004-06. [Download GEVES Brochure (PDF, 3.5Mb) »]
• Review of Widespan Structures, UK Client: BAE Systems, 2002-06.
• Algeria Earthquake Building Stock and Vulnerability Model Client: Willis Group, 2004.
• Tree-related Subsidence Risk Assessment Tool (TreeRAT) Client: Royal & Sun Alliance, 2001-02.
• Turkey Earthquake and Flood Emergency Recovery (TEFER) Client: Willis Group, Government of Turkey and World Bank, 2000-01.
• UXB Trentino Project Client: Provincia Autonoma di Trento, 2000-2005. [Read more »]

Selected publications since 2000

A. Coburn and R. Spence. Earthquake Protection (2nd edition), Wiley, 2002.

J.F. Bird, J.J. Bommer, R. Spence, J.D. Bray, R. Sancio. “Comparing loss estimation with observed damage in a zone of ground failure: a study of the 1999 Kocaeli earthquake in Turkey”, Bulletin of Earthquake Engineering 2, 2004, pp. 329-360.

J. Bommer, R. Pinho, R. Spence. “Earthquake loss estimation models: Time to open the black boxes?” Paper 834, Proceedings, First European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Geneva, September, 2006.

J. Bommer, R. Spence, S. Tabuchi, N. Aydinoglu, E. Booth, D. del Rè, M. Erdik, O. Peterken. “Development of an Earthquake Loss Model for Turkish Catastrophe Insurance”, Special Issue of the Journal of Seismology on the Turkish Earthquakes of 1999, Vol 6, no 2, 2002, pp. 431-446.

R. Spence and A. Coburn. “Earthquake risk and insurance”, Chapter 18 in Assessing and Managing Earthquake Risk (eds C. Oliveira, A. Roca and X. Goula), pp. 385-402, Springer, Dordrecht, 2006.

R. Spence, L. Leone, H. Castella, G. Andrea, S. Jenny. “A Global Earthquake Vulnerability Estimation System (GEVES): an approach to insurance risk”, Paper 1491, Proceedings, First European Conference on Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, Geneva, September, 2006.

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