The decision to underwrite a property is a complex one, and access to location-specific information is critical. When you’re thinking about adding a high-dollar policy to your portfolio, you need to be able to weigh the risks and understand how this new exposure will fit into your current book of business. All too often these risk factors are difficult to access and even harder to put into context.
SpatialKey brings these important pieces of information together quickly, intuitively, and visually. We’ve integrated complex risk analysis from our partner, CoreLogic, and we’re proud to be able to provide risk scores for hazards such as storm surge, earthquakes, sinkholes, and damaging winds. Risk maps show you the distribution of risk for different hazards geographically, which gives you the context you need to establish whether a particular property is a high or low risk and how it impacts your accumulated risk in a particular area. In addition to this risk analysis, SpatialKey also provides easy to use tools for quickly measuring distances. You can easily find out the distance from a prospective property to the coast, or to the other properties already in your book of business.
We’re currently rolling out this new tool for underwriters to some select clients. If your underwriting department needs this kind of actionable risk analysis, contact us today.
Nearly 400,000 internal US Army documents were leaked on October 22, 2010 by the organization WikiLeaks. These documents record a total of approximately 109,000 deaths in Iraq from 2004-2009. To analyze this data we will be using a spreadsheet prepared by the Guardian newspaper. You can see the Guardian’s reporting on the Iraq data here, or download the CSV file directly here.
We will be creating a thematic map that shows each district and the number of casualties within its boundary. We will also see a breakdown list of the top districts and provinces that have the most casualties.
The WikiLeaks Casualty Data
When we first upload the spreadsheet of the casualty data we can see a heatmap of the deaths. This heatmap is showing the total casualties (US forces, Iraqi forces, civilians, enemy forces, etc).
That’s an interesting image on its own and shows us the concentration of casualties around major cities like Baghdad. But we’re interested in seeing this data broken down by the administrative boundaries of Iraq. The problem is, we don’t know the district or province for each point. This is where SpatialKey comes in. We’ll use the new ability to join two datasets. That will let us combine our data to figure out the district and province of each casualty.
Iraq Administrative Boundaries
There are high level boundaries known as governorates (or provinces), which are divided up into lower level districts.
To produce this map I downloaded the boundary shapefile fo the Iraq administrative areas from gadm.org (direct download). Once uploaded to SpatialKey we can see the district boundaries, which are grouped and colored by province in the map below:
We want to produce a map that uses these district boundaries, but colors them thematically based on the number of casualties within each one. We will be joining these two datasets together using the new join feature of SpatialKey.
Joining the data
To begin joining the data we can tell SpatialKey we want to render the casualty data (first displayed as a heatmap) using a thematic shape map. We will then select the option to “Create a custom join.”
To create a new join we have to select which boundary dataset to use. We’ll select the Iraq boundaries file that we loaded into SpatialKey.
The next step will ask us how we want to join the datasets. In this case we want to use the locations of each point in the WikiLeaks dataset and determine which district each shape falls within. We’ll select “Use Point Locations.”
Mapping the data
Next we’ll select what value we want to map. The Wikileaks data contains numeric values for each record indicating the number of deaths (civilian, coalition forces, etc). We’ll be creating a thematic map that shows total deaths.
And that’s all it takes to produce a thematic map of the districts colored to show the total number of deaths within each one. We’ve taken point data and used a custom boundary dataset to create a new custom thematic map.
We can mouse over any of the boundaries and see the number of casualties within each one.
Breakdowns by Province and District
Our final step will be to view the aggregate count of deaths by district and province. The boundary dataset contains some attributes about each district including the name of the district and the name of the province. Now that we have joined the two datasets together we can use those columns as if they were normal columns within our original WikiLeaks dataset. Essentially, we have enhanced the point dataset by adding the district and province columns.
To get access to those enhanced columns we will add them to the dataset by clicking on “Add Fields from Joined Datasets.”
That will allow us to select which field form the Iraq Boundaries dataset want to add in. In this case we’ll be adding in both the District and the Province columns.
Now we have access to these fields as if they were in our original point dataset. You’ll notice the join icon and the different coloring, which indicate that these fields are joined from the Iraq Boundaries dataset. We can add pods and filters just like any normal fields.
We can add pods to show the breakdown of the number of casualties grouped both by the district as well as the province. This gives us clearer insight into the top districts and provinces.
Now we have our final report, which shows the thematic map of casualties by district as well as the breakdown pods of total casualties by the different administrative regions.
I recently came across an interesting video about journalism in the age of data that ties directly back to why we think SpatialKey is a game-changing tool.
Did you know that half of our brain is hard wired for vision? Well what wakes the SpatialKey team up at night is that we want to create an application that leverages this crucial sense to its fullest potential. Human beings are visual thinkers, yet how come, in the business world, do we need to make so many critical decisions based on data that is presented in flat/non visual ways?
Our premise is that just because business decision makers have massive amounts of data doesn’t mean they can easily access its essential truths- truths that can reveal critical threats or opportunities that make/brake businesses. We need to see data represented in visual ways to quickly recognize patterns and understand complex events. Seeing that data visually allows us to ask better questions, get better feedback from others and ultimately get to the truths that give us the upper hand in decision making.
As a basic example: which format allows you to understand patterns better.
This?
Or this?
The answer is simple.
Spatialkey location intelligence software transforms static/flat row-and-column data into rich maps, reports, and visually interactive analytics that instantly reveal the truths business decision makers need. But instead of having to invest hundreds of thousands of dollars and months on implementation, SpatialKey is a cost effective and easy to use SaaS.
An audience that has recently discovered the business benefits of SpatialKey is the insurance industry. SpatialKey enables insurance analysts, underwriters, and brokers to finally use their wealth of geographical information to its fullest potential.
They can now bring together and visualize data about policies, claims, weather, terrain, geographical boundaries, and demographics. They can understand historical trends, current risks, and future opportunities in a more visual and interactive format. And ultimately, they are using the truths they discover to make decisions that maximize their bottom-line profitability.
For more information or to request a free trial- please contact us.
The insurance industry has long relied on location intelligence to assess and manage regional exposure to risk. But until recently, the geospatial analysis technologies available to help to extract this intelligence have been less than ideal. They’ve had high price tags, and their deployment, management, and use have required the help of dedicated data specialists. They’ve also taken a long time to process data.
(CoreLogic provided the data displayed in this blog's images.)
SpatialKey changes all of that. Designed for hands-on use by the decision makers in your organization, the SaaS application breaks through barriers by giving insurers quick, easy-to-use data mapping and analysis capabilities—no programming or specialists required. Since there is no software to install or maintain, SpatialKey deploys instantly and can be used for a fraction of the cost of traditional GIS and location intelligence systems. And it complements the systems you already have in place.
With SpatialKey, you can bring in data from many sources and instantly visualize it on a map. Then you can analyze and report on your data on the fly to better understand patterns and correlations between policies, perils, demographics, and other factors. Ultimately, you’ll make decisions about capital management, underwriting, pricing, sales, and marketing that immediately benefit the bottom line.
Available either out-of-the-box or customized to meet your company’s specific needs, SpatialKey helps you realize the full potential of your insurance data without substantial system investment.
Use Cases:
* Manage risk exposure: In order to remain profitable and comply with government regulations, you’re constantly managing and monitoring risk exposure. SpatialKey provides highly interactive analysis of geographic data, allowing you to properly assess reinsurance protection needs.
* Catastrophic and large-scale event management: SpatialKey enables you to better assess and respond to large claim events such as floods and hurricanes. For example, import hurricane path data to assess probabilistic loss estimates. See how the event will affect local portfolio-holding exposure, and manage response resources accordingly.
* Maximize sales and marketing opportunities: By providing deeper insight into local demographic and policy characteristics, SpatialKey helps you develop more targeted marketing campaigns that deliver higher returns than traditional, blanket campaigns.
For more information or to start a new trial, please contact us
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