Oliver Wing On the Future of Flood Risk Modeling

What if we could map every river, every coastline, and every floodplain on Earth — and use that knowledge to build a more climate-resilient future?

It sounds ambitious, but this is exactly what UK-based Fathom has set out to do. The flood and climate risk intelligence company recently launched its Global Flood Cat model, capable of modeling all major flood perils — from burst riverbanks to coastal storm surges. Moreover, it can quantify the financial risk of these floods to all kinds of assets. This data is invaluable to insurers, banks, and other financial institutions nervous about how more frequent and severe floods could affect their portfolios.

In today’s episode, Louie sits down with Dr. Oliver Wing, Chief Scientist at Fathom, to explore how cutting-edge flood modeling is transforming how we understand — and prepare for — climate risk.

The conversation digs into where flooding happens and who gets hurt, unpacking the myriad variables that shape how floods impact real assets and financial institutions alike. Ollie also offers his frank perspective on the flood risk modeling community as a whole, explaining why transparency is the not-so-secret sauce to Fathom’s success to date.

If you're curious about the intersection of climate science, risk modeling, and the pursuit of adaptation at scale, this conversation is for you.

Listen below, download from the Podcasts page on Climate Proof, or tune in via Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

We talk about:

👉 How Fathom uses hydrodynamic models and satellite data to generate flood maps for every corner of the world

👉 The difference between physical flood risk and human vulnerability, and how infrastructure, socioeconomic status, and planning decisions shape outcomes

👉 The importance of transparency, trust, and credibility in flood models, and how overconfidence in opaque outputs can lead to bad decisions, especially in high-stakes contexts like insurance and public policy

👉 The maturity of financial institutions vis-a-vis flood and climate risk management

👉 What’s surprised Ollie over a near-decade on the frontlines of flood risk modeling

Thanks for listening!

Louie Woodall
Editor