Mapping future disasters, to assess risk and prepare

"With recent extreme weather events, countries around the world are paying more attention to loss prevention measures," Qu says. "Our method can draw a map telling people the different risk levels of the place their properties are on."

Qu's model has been put into practice to produce the flood inundation map of the valley of river Weser in Germany. In the valley of Weser lies one of Germany's biggest cities, Hannover. "Besides river flood mapping, we have also used the model to imitate the inland inundation of the city Hannover, and have gained valuable information about city flooding."

Having studied hydraulic engineering at Tsinghua University for a bachelor's degree, Qu is now working with his team at his alma mater to investigate flood response characteristics in a city in East China.

"We are working on collaborating with Tsinghua University," Qu says. "We started working with China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research a decade ago on various flood projects."

Recently, Qu has been in discussions with Cheng Xiaotao and Li Na at the institute about another initiative focusing on mapping the floods caused by levee failure. "Our ultimate goal is to build a flood risk-assessment system that covers every country in the world, so people can evaluate the risk of their properties before the flood. FM Global believes 'prevention is better than repair' and the best loss prevention solutions come from innovative research."