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Insurance And Urban Planning Partnering In Risk Resolution

The dynamic nature of urban development continuously creates new circumstances for the creation of hazards. Rapid rates of change, especially in technology and social conditions such as population growth, changing urban life styles and activity patterns, size and complexity of urban systems, make it difficult to monitor and mitigate hazards that arise from the interaction between human and physical conditions. The successful management of hazards must take into account the practices that contribute, albeit often inadvertently, to the creation of risks. Two such practices, insurance and urban planning, are considered in terms of how they individually can play a part in creating risk and how they can work together to reduce risk. In particular, the concept of contrary intent is put forward to show how insurance practices can (or may) unintentionally contribute or promote the creation of risk. This highlights the need for greater awareness between both groups of the need to fully understand how urban hazardscapes are created. In particular, a call for a moral community of insurers is made, wherein the insurance industry assumes more responsibility for risk management. A greater understanding of hazard production and hazard location, before offering insurance, will reduce risk. In doing so, the insurer will be able to play a much larger role in hazard management which, in turn, will lead to increased hazard reduction.

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