This document provides an introduction and overview of the SAMSI CLIM Risk and Coastal Hazards Working Group. The working group focuses on natural hazards in coastal environments and how interconnected natural, infrastructure, and social systems influence risk. Key areas of discussion include climate science, statistics, insurance, and risk. The working group aims to produce a workshop on climate science and insurance in Fall 2018, around two manuscripts, and possible proposals. Presentations were given on topics like the nexus of climate data and insurance, modeling weather-related insurance claims with machine learning, and estimating extreme storm surge levels statistically.

1. Introduction and Overview of the
SAMSI CLIM Risk and Coastal
Hazards Working Group
SAMSI CLIM TRANS WS
15 May 2018

2. General Theme
• Natural events and human/social
inter-dependent and interconnected
complex systems
• “Loose” focus on the coastal
environment via hurricane and storm
surge statistics.
• Scientific/Research
• Future risk levels
• Changes in extreme events (e.g., hurricane
occurrence)
• Emerging statistical methods for extreme
characterization
• Practical/Applied
• Uses of coastal risk assessments
• Planning, emergency management, insurance
• Uncertainty
• What do decision-makers need vs. want vs. get?

3. General Theme
• Natural events, civil infrastructure, human/social
inter-dependent and interconnected complex
systems
• “Loose” focus on the coastal environment via
hurricane and storm surge statistics.
• Climate, Statistics, Insurance, Risk
• (Almost) weekly discussions focused on
• Connections between Climate
Science Research/Applications and
Insurance Industry
• Extreme value analysis of storm surge
and hurricanes
• Risk/vulnerability mapping in South
Carolina (SHELDUS Data Set)

4. Participants
• Brian Blanton (RENCI), Slava Lyubchich
(Maryland), Richard Smith (UNC)
• Rob Erhardt (Wake Forest)
• Yulia Gel, Asim Dey (UT-Dallas)
• Whitney Huang (SAMSI)
• Lelys Bravo de Guenni (Northern Illinois
University)
• Chris Lenhardt, Taylor Asher, Wei Mei
(UNC)
• Jesse Bell (Cooperative Institute for
Climate Sciences/NCSU)
• Steve Sain (Jupiter, Inc)
• Ben Timmermans (LBL)
Statistics
Insurance/Risk
Oceanography
Social Sciences

5. Principal Outcomes
• Workshop on Climate Science and Insurance (Fall 2018)
• ~2 manuscripts
• Possible proposals

6. Principal Outcomes
• Workshop on Climate Science and Insurance (Fall 2018)
• ~2 manuscripts
• Possible proposals
• Lelys Bravo
• Risk mapping for South Carolina using the SHELDUS Data Set
• Risk Estimation and Mapping with a Bayesian Approach
• Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS)
• cemhs.asu.edu/sheldus (previously at U-South Carolina)

7. Principal Outcomes
• Workshop on Climate Science and Insurance (Fall 2018)
• ~2 manuscripts
• Possible proposals
• Lelys Bravo
• Risk mapping for South Carolina using the SHELDUS Data Set
• Risk Estimation and Mapping with a Bayesian Approach
• Spatial Hazard Events and Losses Database for the United States (SHELDUS)
• cemhs.asu.edu/sheldus (previously at U-South Carolina)
Total Number of EventsTotal Number of Fatalities
WinterWeather
Lightning
Heat
Flooding
Coastal
SevereStorm
Tornado
Wind
Hail
Hurricane
Fog
Wildfire
Drought
Thunderstorm
SevereStorm
WinterWeather
Hail
Flooding
Lightning
Wind
Drought
Tornado
Hurricane
Heat
Coastal
Wildfire
Fog
Thunderstorm

8. Presentations
Rob Erhardt (Wake Forest)
The Nexus of Climate Data, Insurance, and Adaptive Capacity
Asim Dey (UT-Dallas)
Modeling Weather-related House Insurance Claims with Machine
Learning Approach
Whitney Huang (SAMSI)
Estimating Extreme Storm Surge Levels: A Statistical Perspective