Designing a flood management and insurance system in Hungary: A model-based stakeholder approach

This chapter describes how an integrated catastrophe model aided a stakeholder policy process focusing on the design of the Hungarian flood insurance system. The process incorporated views on flood insurance held by the public, local authorities, government ministries and private insurers. It was based on extensive interviews, a public survey administered to 400 persons in the risk and non-risk communities and a stakeholder workshop. Stakeholder participation was aided by a catastrophe model that could demonstrate the distribution of future flood losses among the victims, the government and the insurers depending on the design of the insurance pool. The Hungarian stakeholders reached consensus on the design of the national insurance system with all its implications for loss reduction and burden sharing. This pilot study illustrates the use of information technology in a participatory, stakeholder setting, and as such is of interest to all policy makers seeking social consensus for disaster risk management policies.