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Explore how FloodWiseTM uses real-time, localized flood forecasting to help insurers, policyholders, and communities better understand risk and strengthen resilience .
Several days before a major rainfall or coastal event, a great deal may already be known about the conditions taking shape. Regional forecasts can identify areas where heavy rainfall is expected, established flood maps can provide historical context, and catastrophe models can help organizations understand potential impacts across broader geographic areas.
Yet flooding is highly localized. Two properties within the same community, or even the same neighborhood, can experience very different outcomes based on elevation, drainage, surrounding terrain, infrastructure, soil conditions, and the movement of water throughout the system.
That is where more detailed, dynamic flood intelligence can add significant value.
FloodWiseTM, Streamline Technologies’ real-time flood-forecasting system, provides a continuously evolving view of potential flooding at the street, structure, and critical-infrastructure levels several days in advance. By complementing traditional sources of flood-risk information with highly localized forecasting, FloodWiseTM creates opportunities for insurance providers, policyholders, municipalities, emergency managers, and communities to better understand and prepare for flood-related impacts.
Moving Beyond a Static View of Flood Risk
Flood maps, historical records, catastrophe models, and other established resources remain important tools for understanding exposure. FloodWiseTM adds another dimension, a dynamic view of how a specific rainfall or coastal event may interact with a community's physical characteristics.
The system incorporates detailed terrain, drainage networks, hydrologic and hydraulic (H&H) conditions, and continuously updated rainfall information. Where applicable, FloodWiseTM can also integrate NOAA coastal ocean forecasts to evaluate the combined effects of rainfall, tides, and storm surge.
The result is a more localized understanding of where flooding may occur, how deep water may become, and how long impacts could persist.
For insurance providers, this additional layer of information can complement existing underwriting, catastrophe modeling, and portfolio-management practices. For public agencies and communities, it can strengthen situational awareness and preparedness. Together, these capabilities support a more informed approach to understanding and managing flood risk.
Adding Greater Resolution to Property Risk
Insurance depends on accurately evaluating and managing risk, but flood exposure can vary considerably across short distances. Differences in ground elevation, drainage capacity, nearby infrastructure, and water conveyance can significantly affect how individual properties respond during the same event.
FloodWiseTM helps provide greater clarity to that picture.
Through Flood Risk PointsTM, users can evaluate forecasted conditions at specific streets, structures, facilities, and critical infrastructure assets. Rather than viewing exposure only through broad geographic classifications, organizations using FloodWiseTM can examine how modeled conditions may develop at locations of particular importance.
For insurers, this capability can provide additional property- and asset-level intelligence to help inform the understanding of individual and portfolio exposure. Greater visibility into localized flood behavior may also support more nuanced risk evaluation and long-term planning.
For policyholders, a more detailed understanding of flood risk across the broader insurance and resilience ecosystem can help support approaches to protection and preparedness that more closely reflect the characteristics of individual properties and communities.
The goal is not to replace established methods of flood-risk assessment, but to enhance them with timely, location-specific information.
From Historical Understanding to a Living Picture
Flood risk is inherently dynamic.
Rainfall patterns change from storm to storm. Coastal water levels fluctuate. Soil conditions evolve. Drainage systems, infrastructure, and the interaction between inland and coastal influences can all affect how an event unfolds.
FloodWiseTM is designed around that changing environment.
Operating continuously, 24/7/365, the system automatically incorporates current and forecasted information into its modeling environment. This allows users to move beyond understanding where flooding has occurred historically and begin evaluating where impacts may develop during an approaching event.
For insurance organizations, that capability can strengthen situational awareness and operational preparation. Forecast intelligence can help teams better understand where significant impacts are more likely to occur and where post-event resources may be needed.
Claims personnel, catastrophe-response teams, adjusters, and other operational resources can then be prepared with a clearer picture of potential areas of impact before an event concludes.
That preparation does not change the role of the insurer or position carriers to serve as emergency-notification providers. Rather, it provides insurance organizations with another source of intelligence to support their operations and response efforts when policyholders need them most.
Strengthening Community Preparedness
The value of real-time flood forecasting extends beyond insurance alone.
FloodWiseTM is designed to aid municipalities, emergency managers, utilities, and other public-sector organizations in better understanding where flooding may occur and how conditions may develop throughout an event.
Several days of advance notice can provide valuable time to evaluate vulnerable infrastructure, coordinate resources, assess transportation concerns, prepare critical facilities, and support broader emergency planning.
FloodWiseTM also provides scenario-evaluation capabilities that allow users to explore potential conditions and better understand how changing circumstances may influence outcomes.
That preparedness can complement the role insurance plays in resilience. When public agencies, infrastructure operators, businesses, residents, and insurance providers each have stronger tools to manage their respective responsibilities, communities can be better positioned to withstand, mitigate, and recover from significant flood events.
For policyholders, that broader resilience ecosystem matters. Prepared infrastructure, informed emergency operations, and efficient post-event insurance response can collectively help reduce disruption and support recovery.
Supporting a More Informed Post-Event Response
FloodWiseTM can also provide valuable context after an event.
A modeled representation of flooding can help stakeholders understand how conditions developed across a community, including the location, depth, and duration of the flooding.
For insurance organizations, this information can complement other sources used during post-event assessment and claims operations, helping teams develop a more comprehensive understanding of affected areas and prioritize resources accordingly.
Communities can similarly use event information to evaluate system performance, identify recurring vulnerabilities, and inform future infrastructure and mitigation planning.
In this way, the value of flood forecasting extends beyond a single storm. Each event can contribute to a deeper understanding of how properties, infrastructure, and communities respond to extreme conditions.
A Shared Opportunity for Greater Flood Resilience
The future of flood-risk management will depend on bringing together better information, advanced modeling, responsible risk management, resilient infrastructure, effective emergency planning, and strong insurance markets.
FloodWiseTM can serve as an important part of that broader ecosystem.
By continuously forecasting potential flooding at highly localized levels several days in advance, FloodWiseTM provides actionable intelligence that benefits each stakeholder in different yet complementary ways.
For insurers, it can provide deeper visibility into exposure, stronger portfolio intelligence, and more informed operational preparation. For policyholders, it can contribute to an insurance and resilience environment increasingly informed by the characteristics of individual properties and actual flood behavior. For municipalities and emergency management organizations, it can provide greater foresight to protect infrastructure, coordinate resources, and prepare communities.
Together, these benefits support a more informed and collaborative approach to flood resilience, one in which insurance, technology, infrastructure, and public preparedness each play an important role.
Because the greatest opportunity presented by a more complete picture of flood risk extends beyond understanding what happened after an event, it also lies in anticipating what may happen before the water arrives and using that insight to support more informed decision-making.
Contact our team to discover how FloodWiseTM can bring greater clarity to flood risk and support more informed decisions before, during, and after an event .
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