Subsidence Risk
Predict subsidence risk at individual property levels
Make well-informed, faster decisions on a case-by-case basis.

Focusing in on Climate Change
With climate change continuing to impact the environment, subsidence is a major risk factor affecting insurers, local authorities, utility companies and property owners.
Relatively dry winters followed by hot and dry summers compound the subsidence problem, and this pattern is expected to continue. Up to 70% of subsidence claims are tree related, arising from soil desiccation or property foundations being undermined by tree root systems.
Subsidence Risk is an address-level data product created and published by emapsite that enables insurers to understand more about the risk of subsidence at an individual property level.
Over the last 12 months we have worked with multiple insurers, using machine learning to further enhance the model.
Subsidence Risk can be integrated as an API to return a risk score for your internal systems or on consumer- or broker-facing websites for quotes.
- It's accessible - insights are serves as downloads or can be accessed online
- It's up-to-date - we maintain the complex datasets to ensure currency
- It's affordable - pricing can be based on area, quantity, or complexity

Why use Subsidence Risk?
Traditionally, the risk of subsidence is associated simply with geology, geography, and any likely ground disturbance. The enduring question is, can we predict the risk of subsidence more accurately at a granular level, to good effect, across a geographically disparate book? And is the margin worth it if that process involves complex, ever-changing data? We believe the answers are 'yes', and 'always'.
Property by property, it's been established that the proximity of a single tree's root system may be just as much of a culprit as a nearby coal-mine. The height and breadth of canopies can also play a part in setting levels of risk. The trouble is, that tree data is complex and analysts need it to be interpreted at address level to make it useful.
However, Subsidence Risk enables insurers to examine a rated combination of the many factors that act as catalysts for subsidence at that individual, case-by-case level.
How does Subsidence Risk work?
Subsidence Risk uses IT system-ready property reference tables that have a normalised risk score for every address. This enables insurers to enhance their existing view of high and low risk areas and adjust their underwriting and claims policies accordingly.
Subsidence Risk also provides insight into areas where insurers have little or no claims data on existing subsidence, enabling refinement of underwriting in all areas. Analysts, actuaries and underwriters can rate risk at property levels to make optimal pricing and portfolio decisions.
What’s more, Subsidence Risk is accessible as a downloadable file or as a web-based service via our data hub – which means these insights are accessible to businesses of all sizes.


Reducing complex in-house processing
“We could develop a subsidence tool in-house, but the data involved is complex – processing it in real time and maintain it would be prohibitive.”
Subsidence involves underlying earth movement as distinct from property settlement which is generally indicative of poor design or construction. As climatic changes become more unpredictable, both locally and globally, issues around underlying ground stability, planning history and historic land use will continue to impact on insurance-related decisions.
However, our Subsidence product handles all of the complex datasets needed to help predict subsidence risks on an individual property basis in real time.
Previously, these analytic tools weren’t a practical option for smaller insurers – the amount of data being considered, and the specialist nature of spatial analytics meant the costs were unjustifiable. An in-house team of data specialists was needed to understand and then use the results. Subsidence Risk makes subsidence-prediction readily accessible – and it's cost-effective from day one.
Using Subsidence Risk to stop loss and reduce costs
In addition to mitigating risk, there’s a balance to be struck between finding more competitive pricing and finding new ways to help customers prevent loss, rather than need to claim for it. Armed with the right information, underwriters can work pro-actively during prolonged dry weather to help property owners act promptly where vegetation might present a problem.
Talk to us now if you’d like to find out more about using Subsidence Risk for pro-active customer support, or about ‘one customer’ dashboards that can include Subsidence Risk and other perils data.

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Why Emapsite?

Unrivalled resources
We simplify the supply and management of mapping products, plans and reports. Blending diverse datasets to uncover hidden commercial insights.

Business intelligence
Our spatial intelligence enables our clients to pinpoint areas of risk and reward, and to make better business decisions faster.

Proven partnership
We work in partnership, we're supportive, and we're committed to reducing our own and our clients' impact on the environment.
Reduce your Subsidence Risk
Download our emapsite Subsidence Risk sample
