Catastrophic loss reduction workshop coming to Toronto

Earthquakes on the B.C. coast, tornadoes sweeping through the U.S. Midwest and torrential rains pounding Ontario – the timing for a workshop on catastrophic loss couldn’t be better.

Marine

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Earthquakes on the B.C. coast, tornadoes sweeping through the U.S. Midwest and torrential rains pounding Ontario – the timing for a workshop on catastrophic loss couldn’t be better.

Part of an ongoing Friday Forum series, the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction will be holding a workshop on May 23, with this particular workshop focusing on predicting and projecting extreme marine events, particularly coastal flooding.

Of particular interest to insurers, Thompson will cover a new statistically-based method for estimating the probability of coastal flooding over the next century, taking into account uncertainty in projections of sea level rise and predilection for storms.

“Our relationship with the marine environment is evolving due to climate change,” says event host Keith Thompson, a professor with Dalhousie University’s Department of Oceanography and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, citing global sea level rise and reduced pack ice in the Northwest Passage. “And also shifts in economic and societal use, such as deep ocean drilling and marine recreational activities.”

In 2012, a new national network was established to bring together researchers and partners in a multi-sectoral partnership in order to improve Canada’s capabilities in Marine Environmental Observation, Prediction and Response (MEOPAR).

The workshop will be held at ICLR’s offices at 120 Richmond St. East in downtown Toronto from 10:00am to 11:30am.

During the morning session, Thompson will first provide an overview of that network and describe some of its research, focusing mostly on coastal flooding – particularly how MEOPAR is making extended-range predictions of east coast storm surges, and the probability of coastal flooding, with lead times of hours to about 10 days.

 

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