RMS RiskLink and RiskBrowser with Version 22 Now Available

RMS® is excited to announce that a major new version of RiskLink®, RiskBrowser®, and related products is now generally available. Version 22 includes numerous updates to existing models for both core perils and climate change views, together with improvements to geocoding and security, plus hazard field updates and other software enhancements.

As we have done in previous years, Version 22 models and data products will be released simultaneously for both on-premises and hosted clients using RiskLink and RiskBrowser, and it will be available for Risk Modeler™ application, Exposure IQ™ application, and Location Intelligence API software (where applicable) on the RMS Intelligent Risk Platform™. With the new release, Risk Modeler will support Version 22 models, side by side with existing model versions: 18, 18.1, and 21 (see Figure 1).

Some of the major models updated in the Version 22 release are:

• U.S. and Canada Winterstorm Model
• North Atlantic Hurricane Climate Change Model
• South Korea Typhoon Model and Taiwan Typhoon Model
• China Earthquake Model
• Central America Earthquake Models and South America Earthquake Models

Updated U.S. and Canada Winterstorm Model

RMS is expanding the analysis functionality of our U.S. and Canada Winterstorm Model in several ways, including:

• Users can run the full stochastic event set, or single out “catastrophe” or “non-catastrophe” storm events 
• Clients will be able to run vulnerability sensitivity options, and post-event loss amplification (PLA).
• RMS is making significant improvements to the vulnerability curves for buildings, contents, and business interruption, and adding a new historical event (freeze, snow, ice, and wind sub-perils) to represent U.S. and Canada winter weather from February 2021, which was the costliest winter storm on record in the U.S. 

For more information on this model update, click here.

New Feature for North Atlantic Hurricane Climate Change Models

In 2021, RMS released a Climate Change Model for North Atlantic hurricane that focused on conditioning of the wind hazard to reflect future climate scenarios. Now in Version 22, RMS is enhancing the Climate Change Model features to include sea level rise projections for the United States. These projections include the impact of vertical land movement, for example, areas of land sinking in the Gulf region.

Users can choose to simulate sea level rise for up to four greenhouse gas concentration trajectories (known as Representative Concentration Pathways, or RCPs) at any time between 2020 and 2100 for the U.S., in combination with future wind hazard projections. The North Atlantic Hurricane Climate Change Models are available in RiskLink and Risk Modeler. Please contact your customer success manager to discuss licensing and deployment. 

Updated South Korea Typhoon Model

RMS released our first model for South Korea typhoon risk in 2017, explicitly modeling the three typhoon-induced perils of wind, inland flooding, and storm surge. An update to this model will be released in 2022 based on a review of all model components, using the latest data and with learnings from recent typhoons across the region, and with a focus on a recalibration of vulnerability and improvements to flood hazard modeling. In addition, our industry exposure database (IED) and industry loss curve (ILC) products will be updated.

Latest View of Risk for Taiwan Typhoon Model

In 2017, RMS released our first model for typhoon risk in Taiwan, which explicitly modeled the three typhoon-induced perils of wind, inland flooding, and storm surge. This model will be updated in 2022, and the new release incorporates learnings from typhoons impacting Taiwan over recent years, regions of the western North Pacific, and vulnerability functions from other regions including Japan, Europe, and the U.S. The update focuses on components of the wind hazard and both wind and flood vulnerability. In addition, our IED and ILC products will be updated.

Significant Enhancements to China Earthquake Model

RMS is making considerable improvements to the China Earthquake Model across all model components. The updated model provides a robust, comprehensive representation of seismic risk, accounting for damage due to ground shaking and ground deformation associated with liquefaction and landslides.

Clients will benefit from:

• New stochastic event sets that represent the latest understanding of earthquake processes in China, incorporating fault-specific sources as well as crustal strain rate data to delineate seismicity rates
• Ground motion footprints updated to reflect the latest science and observations from recent events in China, including the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake
• Reevaluated geotechnical data to enhance the quantification of site-specific factors, such as ground motion amplification, liquefaction-driven ground deformation, and landslide susceptibility
• Updated assessment of building performance to better reflect the latest construction practices as well as lessons learned during recent events

The geographic coverage for the model includes continental China, Hong Kong, and Macau – with Taiwan covered by a separate but integrated model. The China Earthquake Model will also feature updates to its ancillary products including the Industrial Facilities Model, the Builders Risk Model, and the Human Casualty Model. Click here to read a blog with more details about the new improvements to this model.

Updated Central and South America Earthquake Models

RMS customers will benefit from significant updates to the Central and South America Earthquake Models. This includes a new event catalog featuring over a million events, along with new event rate sets, and updates to the ground motion model, geotechnical model, building inventory, and vulnerability.

These updates will impact all 15 countries in the region, including Chile, Colombia, and Peru. Shake-induced landslide hazard for the entire region is being introduced for the first time, along with tsunami accumulation footprints for Chile, Peru, and Ecuador. In addition, an IED, ILC, and Builders Risk vulnerability will now be made available for all countries in the region.

Read a blog providing more details on the model updates.

Geocoding Updates

Models for all countries in Central and South America will benefit from a significant geocoding update, which includes new data sources, new vintages of data, and support for previously unavailable geocoding resolutions. This will have a downstream benefit to the Central America hurricane loss results, which will have improved confidence due to finer geocoding resolution.

For the first time, the U.S. will benefit from geocoding based on building footprints. We are also updating the postcode-level and admin-level centroids for China.

Additional Software and Security Updates

To further help protect against cyber threat actors, RiskBrowser is receiving several security updates, including the implementation of a strong password policy, and other enhancements that will be detailed in release documentation.

RMS is also enabling individual licensing of the China Earthquake Model, Hong Kong Earthquake Model, and the Continental China Flood Model.

New certified or supported platforms planned for Version 22 RiskLink and RiskBrowser focus on various iterations of Microsoft Windows Server 2016 and 2019, SQL Server 2016 and 2019, Microsoft HPC Pack 2019 Update 1, and Windows 11. More details will be available in upcoming system recommendation guides.

Together, these Version 22 features and capabilities ensure that you have access to the most advanced modeling science, data, and technology. Contact your customer success manager to discuss options for upgrading to Version 22, or email us.

For more information on the RMS Intelligent Risk Platform offerings, click on these links for the Risk Modeler application, ExposureIQ application, and Location Intelligence API software.