Ground risk assessment specialist, Terrafirma, is now offering the National Ground Risk Model (NGRM): Climate.

It is designed to provide lenders with a modelled, ground risk dataset, to help them understand how ground risk may impact their mortgage book under a changing climate.

NGRM: Climate includes what Terrafirma claims to be the UK’s first ever map of ground risk data, helping lenders understand the risk to the properties they lend against as the climate changes.

It has been developed by geologists, soil scientists, engineers and geospatial data analysts using Terrafirma’s National Ground Risk Model, a map of all major ground instability risks in Great Britain.

Terrafirma says it will also enable lenders to meet the demands of the Bank of England and the PRS under its 2021 Biennial Exploratory Scenarios (BES) to understand climate-related financial risks.

The objective of the BES is to test the resilience of banks, insurers and the financial system to different climate pathways, which lenders need to prepare for by June 2021.

NGRM: Climate will provide a model of how ground risk will change in low, medium and high emission scenarios in the short-term (2020-2040), medium-term (2040-2060) and long-term (2060-2080). A ‘present day’ baseline provides a picture of ground risk today and forms the context for the projected changes.

Tom Backhouse, Terrafirma CEO, said: “The release of the NGRM: Climate is a game-changer for understanding ground risk. It dramatically improves the quality, availability and accessibility of ground hazard and risk information for lenders.

“Across the UK, homes, infrastructure and land are at risk from complex ground hazards that can remain hidden for years. Every day decisions worth millions of pounds are being made without true understanding of the consequences of these hazards, so Terrafirma set out to improve understanding of the ground and the complex ways it interacts with the built environment.

“We have worked on NGRM: Climate for 18 months to provide the first commercial model of its kind. The model has been engineered by geologists, soil scientists and geospatial data experts. It provides a foundation for lenders to make decisions with a greater understanding of the ground and issues that can affect the value of the property they are lending against, in a manner that is easy to understand. This will help them to make informed decisions without needed to be ground risk specialists themselves.”