To get a better idea of the locations and concentrations of its insured risks, Allianz began using Google Earth to link satellite and aerial photos with property-specific geodata. Pope's team creates a file of the coordinates (latitudes and longitudes) of structures in Google's Keyhole Markup Language (KML). In countries where street addresses can be translated into latitude and longitude, Allianz uses geocoding software. Otherwise, the coordinates of properties need to be provided by the underwriters or risk managers requesting the file.

Allianz staff can use Google Earth's navigation controls to view any point on the globe with an average street-level resolution of 15 meters, detailed enough to identify specific buildings and review proximate hazards. On screen, Allianz-insured properties appear as green, orange, blue, or red dots linked to information on the customer, insured amounts, and potential total loss. The flexibility and open nature of the system enables Allianz to update insured location information as needed, even on an ad hoc basis.

The analyses Allianz staff perform using Google Earth complement the carrier's traditional catastrophe modeling and ultimate risk management decision-making. "Creating files for major metro areas, such as New York and London, really opened up our eyes about how much we actually have insured in those areas by giving us a graphical representation of granular-level information. It has allowed us to determine where we might have too much risk exposure and to find ways to manage that exposure," Pope says. The company also has expanded the use of Google Earth beyond underwriting. For instance, Allianz's security department recently requested a KML file of all the branch offices and property Allianz owns.

Currently, any Allianz underwriter can access Google Earth and load a KML file Pope's team provides. Future plans call for the tool to be part of an underwriting workstation that currently is under development.

Pope sees the tool's importance growing if predictions of climate change increase the volatility of risk Allianz must deal with. "If we have increased flooding risk because of climate change, we can get a good idea of where we have exposure," Pope says.

Outside the insurance sector, Google Earth is being used in long-term climate change research by government and research organizations, such as the National Snow and Ice Data Center and NASA, and in academia. "There definitely are parallels between using Google Earth for catastrophe management [in insurance] and what's being done with climate studies," notes David B. Reusch, PhD, research associate in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Institute at Pennsylvania State University. "The main benefit is getting data with geographic aspects into an easy-to-use tool, so that nonexperts can make use more effectively of complicated data."

For Allianz, the near-term benefits of flexibility and low cost will be key to ongoing expansion of the system. "We can do modeling for anywhere in the world without waiting for a commercial vendor to develop a model," Pope says. "That enables us to be more proactive than some of our competitors."