girls in raincoats and rubber boots walk along flooded road

Predicting flood impacts

Why are Zurich Municipal offering this flood resilience service?

Surface water flooding is the ‘UK’s biggest flood risk’ according to the Environment Agency, it threatens more people and properties than any other form of flood risk. Despite this, there is no publicly available flood warning service that accurately covers surface water flooding. To fill this gap, Zurich Municipal has invested in a partnership with the tech company, Previsico to offer a surface water flood warning service, at no extra cost to our Zurich Municipal customers.

At Zurich Municipal we believe in helping our customers to build and maintain resilient communities. Surface water causes major disruption to our customers and the services they provide.

Previsico offer the following options:

person reading emails on tablet

Email warnings

Automated email warnings sent direct to you if one of your properties is identified as being at risk. Notifications will also be triggered if there is any predicted flooding within the council district(s) where you have property located.

Weather forecast app

Real time forecast data

For those with existing risk management systems, you can also take advantage of an application programming interface (API) feed to provide automated delivery of the real time forecast data.

Previsico's flood forecasting technology

This flood forecasting technology was developed following two decades of research and development at Loughborough University, together with the Environment Agency and the UK Cabinet Office. The model uses live hydrodynamic modelling to predict the likelihood of flooding, drawing on several leading data sources.

The simulation runs every three hours, 365 days a year and warns of flooding at property level, up to 48 hours in advance, predicting the time and depth of the flooding, allowing you to take mitigating action and protect your property.

Sign up to start improving your flood resilience

To make the process as simple for you as possible, we will pass on the contact details you provide, alongside the properties you currently have covered under your policy with us to Previsico, in order for them to notify you of flood alerts direct by email.

You are welcome to provide up to five additional email addresses to receive the flood alerts for your properties. We suggest these alerts are sent direct to whoever in your organisation is responsible for organising your flood response so they can act quickly to implement risk mitigation actions. Please ensure you have their permission to provide us with their email addresses.

Details marked with * must be completed in full.

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Frequently asked questions

If you have a question for Zurich Municipal and Previsico that is not answered below, please do not hesitate to reach out to your Account Manager or Underwriter for support.

Hourly changes in weather patterns can cause surface water flooding which cannot be detected using traditional forecasting approaches. Previsico offers a flood forecasting service which, crucially, includes flooding due to surface water and small watercourses that are not covered by government (EA, NRW, SEPA) flood warnings.

These events can take people by surprise, but Previsico’s service runs 24/7, 365 days a year and is able to warn of flooding at property level up to 48 hours in advance. The cutting-edge technology from Previsico is underpinned by two decades of research at Loughborough University and compliments Met Office weather advice which is available at regional level.

To sign up for the flood forecasting and alerts service, simply fill in the form with your contact information and policy details and we’ll take care of the rest.

To keep things easy for you, Zurich Municipal will pass on the contact details you have provided, alongside all the addresses of properties you currently have covered under your policy to Previsico.

Once Previsico receives your property information, they will take you through a brief tour of the solution to showcase what the service looks like. This typically takes 15 minutes and is completed within two weeks of you completing the sign-up form.

Once completed, you’ll be ready to receive flood alerts direct by email.

If you have any mid-term amendments to the properties covered, please continue to contact us through your usual route. Please note, there may be a delay between you notifying us of a change to your property portfolio and this reflecting in the Previsico data. We aim to ensure any changes are recorded within 30 days of underwriting confirming receipt of the information.

The onboarding call is tailored for those involved in flood response. We suggest bringing along whoever that will be responsible for dealing with the warnings, to allow you to get the most out of the session.

Previsico will be provided with a list of the properties that your organisation insures through Zurich Municipal. Alerts are provided for these properties only, as part of the added value and additional support that we deliver for our customers.

Up to five further members of your team can subscribe to the email warning service, and these details can be provided when completing the sign up form.

Previsico will be able to discuss this with you directly, but this will fall outside of the support provided through the partnership with Zurich Municipal.

Our risk experts in Zurich Resilience Solutions can provide specialist support to deal with all aspects of assessing the flood risk across your portfolio. This would include supporting the operational planning of the preparation, response and recovery phases of a flood from both a property and liability perspective. Please contact Zurich Municipal through your usual route, or visit our website for more information on climate change resilience services.

We would always encourage our customers to take action to mitigate any potential impact of flooding. However, at this moment in time, your response to the alert emails from Previsico will not impact your coverage and claims will be assessed using your usual policy terms and conditions.

Yes, Previsico can also offer an API feed for automated delivery of the real-time forecast data, plus information on any districts and properties at risk, allowing integration with existing systems.

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News and insight on flooding

Our flood risk resource takes an in-depth look at the key risks of floods and prevention measures the public and voluntary sectors should be aware of.