Floods are frequent, unpredictable and expensive. Fremont, Calif., is one of the first cities to secure flood insurance designed using AI.
In Brief:
- A series of damaging floods in recent months has brought financial hardship to local governments.
- Scientists are developing new maps and tools that allow insurers to cover entire areas for disasters such as flooding, rather than coverage for specific buildings.
- A Bay Area city is among the first to buy this form of insurance, which is driven by insights from artificial intelligence.
Sitting high and dry on a hill, the police complex in Fremont, Calif., was the one municipal facility with flood insurance. This was because the hill was technically in a flood plain and the building served as collateral for a bond.
Steven Schwarz, Fremont’s risk manager, found this frustrating. “I have to insure a building for flood that’s never going to be flooded, whereas I’ve got other places in the city that potentially could be flooded,” he says.
When Schwarz brought this up in a conversation with his insurance broker, the broker introduced him to another option: A policy that could protect the city in the event of flooding anywhere in Fremont’s entire geographical area.
governing.com
by Carl Smith
August 22, 2025