The Earthquake Engineering Online Archive

Earthquake risk and insurance

Brillinger, David R.

UCB/EERC-92/14, Earthquake Engineering Research Center, University of California, Berkeley, 1992-10, 42 pages (765/B744/1992)

This report concerns protection against earthquakes through financial insurance, but may be applied to other natural catastrophes as well. Development of appropriate premium rates requires consideration of a wide variety of variables resulting in a broad range of scientific and statistical investigations. Topics discussed include: premium computation, distribution of large earthquakes in time, ground motion at sites, attenuation of energy with distance, damage description, and actual practice in various countries. Statistical considerations that arise include: description, stochastic modeling, conditioning, spatial processes, (marked) point processes, uncertainty estimation, and robust/resistant procedures. Study of the insurance problem is scientifically enlightening because it focuses on the whole context of the problem: geology, seismology, earthquake engineering, and damage. The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake is discussed in the context of the implementation of insurance practices.

Available online: http://nisee.berkeley.edu/documents/EERC/EERC-92-14.pdf (1 MB)