New Science Findings from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Published (Flood insurance is a driver of population growth in European floodplains): Science

2023 DEC 05 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at NewsRx Science Daily -- Research findings on science are discussed in a new report. According to news reporting originating from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Future flood risk assessments typically focus on changing hazard conditions as a result of climate change, where flood exposure is assumed to remain static or develop according to exogenous scenarios.”

The news journalists obtained a quote from the research from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam: “However, this study presents a method to project future riverine flood risk in Europe by simulating population growth in floodplains, where households’ settlement location decisions endogenously depend on environmental and institutional factors, including amenities associated with river proximity, riverine flood risk, and insurance against this risk. Our results show that population growth in European floodplains and, consequently, rising riverine flood risk are considerably higher when the dis-amenity caused by flood risk is offset by insurance.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “This outcome is particularly evident in countries where flood risk is covered collectively and notably less where premiums reflect the risk of individual households.”

For more information on this research see: Flood insurance is a driver of population growth in European floodplains. Nature Communications, 2023,14(1):1-14. (Nature Communications - https://www.nature.com/ncomms/). The publisher for Nature Communications is Nature Portfolio.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-43229-8.

Our news editors report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Max Tesselaar, Institute for Environmental Studies, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Additional authors for this research include W. J. Wouter Botzen, Timothy Tiggeloven, Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts.

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