Location intelligence technology company Gamma has announced it is expanding into the Spanish market with its property risk assessment solutions.
The Dublin-based company successfully entered the UK market two years ago and the Spanish launch forms part of the firms plans to grow its operations internationally.
Using its Perilfinder platform, Gamma has analysed FloodFutures data for Spain from Ambiental Risk Analytics to show the provinces most at risk of flooding and to showcase the value of its expansion.
Perilfinder allows insurance companies and local authorities to assess location risk for properties including flooding, fire, subsidence and crime.
"Our aim in Spain, as well as Ireland and the UK, is to assess and visualise the impact of climate change using high-quality data at the individual property level," said Richard Cantwell, senior spatial data scientists at Gama.
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"In turn, this helps local authorities, banks and insurance providers to make better informed decisions, to assess their exposure for climate-related disclosure reporting and to lower investment and underwriting risk.
"Even though our analysis shows that the predicted physical damage varies greatly across Spain’s climatic regions, the impacts will be felt across the entire country.”
The analysis found that Gipuzkoa has the highest risk rating per property, ahead of Bizkaia, Cantabria, Asturias and Pontevedra, A Coruña, Huelva, Tarragona, Girona and Cádiz.
The provinces along the Mediterranean coastline rank highest, however, in terms of expected annual loss from flood risk based on properties at risk and the estimated average damages incurred from flooding (€270,000).
Barcelona comes out on top with an expected total loss of €17.5m, ahead of Valencia (€13.9m), Sevilla (€12.5m), Girona (€9.3m) and Murcia (€8.8m).
For the country as a whole, excluding the Canary Island, Gamma has tabbed the expected annual loss at €178.5m and Gipuzkia, Asturias and Bizkaia as the most impacted areas.
"The effects of climate change are being felt across the globe and whilst wildfire damage and drought tend to be more prevalent in Spain, flooding also occurs in winter months and is increasing due to climate change," said Cantwell.
"In fact, in the second half of 2021 alone, there were several severe flood events in the likes of Navarra, Cantabria and La Rioja. Terrible floods have also wreaked havoc in recent months across Murcia, Tarragona and Madrid."
According to the latest available accounts, Gamma had net assets of just over €1m at the end of the last year. The company, founded in 1993, has offices in Dublin, Manchester and Bilbao and 17 employees between management and operations.
After recording a loss of close to €80,000 in 2020, Gamma made a profit of more than €438,000 in 2021. Remuneration for the company directors, including CEO Feargal O'Neill, totalled €280,000.
Photo: Feargal O'Neill.
