Applying an Open-Source Tropical Cyclone Risk Model for the Public Good

While catastrophe modelers traditionally assess risk of tropical cyclones and other perils to support insurance and reinsurance, there are many non-profit activities that can benefit from sophisticated risk information. The advent of open-source catastrophe models provides new opportunities to support such non-profit applications. Here we describe three non-profit applications of one such open-source risk model, the Columbia tropical cyclone Hazard model (CHAZ). CHAZ is a method for producing physically-plausible synthetic tropical cyclones, allowing prediction of storms for present and projected future climate states. This model can be used to assess wind hazard from such storms, and combined with layers for exposure and vulnerability to assess risk (e.g. economic damages). Recently the model has been deployed to: 1) develop a Red Cross catastrophe bond to support Mangrove restoration in the Philippines, 2) support WorldBank efforts towards tropical cyclone disaster risk reduction in the Philippines (and other lower income countries), 3) provide a publicly accessible assessment of North Atlantic tropical cyclone risk in a changing climate through the non-profit, open-source catastrophe modeling platform OASIS. We will discuss lessons learned in conducting such work, and the great opportunities for open-source catastrophe models to support the public good.