Aon Benfield, the reinsurance intermediary and capital advisor of Aon Corporation, has launched an earthquake model, Impact Forecasting, for Cyprus, as insurers seek to increase their understanding of seismic risk in the region.
Aon said that the Impact Forecasting model can provide insurers with quantitative loss estimates even when the input exposure data is given at an aggregate or CRESTA zone level and construction information is incomplete.
According to the Aon, the research components of the model include: potential seismic sources in Cyprus that constitute an event set of over 10,000 earthquake scenarios, both onshore and offshore.
The vulnerability of Cypriot building stock by various engineering metrics including construction class, age and seismic zone, as well as geographical distribution.
Impact Forecasting president Steven Jakubowski said in the development of peril models, Impact Forecasting always partners with local institutions and universities to incorporate into these models the latest scientific understanding of the peril and the vulnerability of the built environment.
Earthquakes in Cyprus are common as the island is situated in close proximity to the boundary between the Anatolian and African plates.