Building resiliency with building codes

March 2, 2022 / 2 min read

As natural disasters are projected to increase in frequency, scope, and severity,¹ ensuring that buildings are resilient enough to withstand damaging weather events is of growing importance to many communities, homeowners, and insurers.

bcegs-enforcement-and-non-catastrophe-losses

Structures built to withstand natural disasters can help prevent extreme losses and even loss of life.

Even non-catastrophic weather events, like windstorms, can cause damage to structures. This begs the question: What might loss experience stemming from non-catastrophic weather events look like?

Strong enforcement of building codes provides a start. Structures built to withstand natural disasters can help prevent extreme losses and even loss of life, and it is possible to predict which buildings will be resilient enough to stand up against bad weather.

Mitigating risk and promoting recovery

BCEGS (Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule) scores, and the predictive insights they can provide, are an important tool for communities looking to mitigate risk and promote recovery. In fact, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has incorporated BCEGS into its Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program, which supports the building of resilient public infrastructure projects. The program uses BCEGS criteria for BRIC grants, which seek to help mitigate risk to community lifelines—like transportation, containment of hazardous materials, food, water, and shelter—and promote recovery, thus incentivizing modern building codes' adoption and enforcement. BRIC offers up to $1 billion annually in competitive grants for completion of these projects; and U.S. states, territories, tribal governments, and the District of Columbia are eligible to compete for funding.

The grant supports:

Evaluation, adoption, or implementation of codes that reduce risk
Enhancing existing codes to incorporate more requirements or higher standards
Developing professional workforce capabilities through technical assistance and training

Verisk isn't only a data provider; in partnership with FEMA and its efforts with the BRIC grant, BCEGS also encourages positive change, helping promote community resiliency through stronger building code enforcement. BCEGS helps communities, policyholders, and insurers understand how community resiliency can positively impact non-catastrophe weather losses.

To gain a comprehensive view of property, visit: https://www.verisk.com/insurance/products/location-specific-risk-data/

Masson-Delmotte, Valérie, et all, “Climate Change 2021 The Physical Science Basis,” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2021, < https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGI_SPM_final.pdf >, accessed January 4, 2022