Climate Risk and Resilience Index

A resilience-adjusted approach to climate risk

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Overview

AlphaGeo’s Climate Risk and Resilience Index (CRRI) measures climate risk for any location through a resilience-adjusted lens, modelling both physical climate risk as well as resilience-adjusted risk that factors in the adaptation capacity of the location, society, and asset. This allows users to model likely real-world impact, not just hazard exposure.

The result is a view of both unadapted risk and adapted risk, as well as a quantification of the location's adaptive capacity and resilience. The CRRI can be used to screen locations, compare assets, plan for adaptation, and support climate disclosure and reporting requirements.

The CRRI provides a physical risk and resilience-adjusted risk score for 9 acute and chronic hazards, over 4 time periods.

Our approach: Resilience-adjusted risk

Traditional climate risk models focus on hazard intensity. They often miss how local adaptation changes outcomes on the ground.

CRRI addresses that gap with AlphaGeo’s resilience-adjusted risk methodology. It first computes physical climate risk. It then calculates the location's mitigated, resilience-adjusted risk using a hazard-specific offset coefficient, based on the adaptation measures in place at that location.

This approach produces two complementary views:

1. Physical Risk Scores — the hazard-only baseline derived from climate models (i.e., unmitigated, or undefended risk)

2. Resilience-Adjusted Risk Scores — the likely real-world impact after accounting for local adaptation capacity (i.e., mitigated, or defended risk)

This helps users move beyond risk identification. It supports adaptation planning, capital allocation, and resilience strategies.

Triple-layer adaptation offset

CRRI's unique Resilience-adjusted Risk Framework applies a triple-layer adaptation offset to move from hazard exposure to likely real-world impact.

1. It first adjusts Physical Risk (or "Hazard Score") using local adaptation capacity, such as flood defenses or drainage systems.

   1. We quantify hazard-specific adaptation capacity using our proprietary Global Adaptation Layer, the world's first commercially available, multi-hazard database on global adaptation capacity.

2. It then applies societal resilience factors, such as fiscal capacity, and demographic vulnerability.

3. Where asset data is available, it adds a third layer through an asset-level remediation workflow.

This third layer is powered by the Remediation Checklist, which captures the mitigation measures in place at the building or asset level. That makes the Remediation Checklist a key feature of CRRI, extending the index from location-level risk screening to asset-level adaptation planning and helping users quantify how specific resilience measures can further reduce risk.

AlphaGeo's proprietary Resilience-adjusted Risk score reflects adapted risk, where hazard intensity is offset by (1) local adaptations; (2) societal resilience; and (3) asset-level remediations.

In this example, the initial Heat Stress Hazard (i.e., Physical Risk) score is adjusted by the "triple-layer" adaptation offset to result in a Resilience-adjusted Risk Score of 40/100.

Hazard categories

The CRRI includes data on risk, adaptation, and resilience for 9 acute and chronic hazard categories:

The Climate Risk and Resilience Index's feature matrix. Risk, adaptation, and resilience features are provided by AlphaGeo, while asset-level remediations are an optional, user-reported input.

• Heat Stress: Evaluates the risk of extreme heat on buildings, productivity, and thermal comfort. Adaptation capacity data includes building density and urban greenery, which shape local heat island effects and cooling potential.

• Drought: Assesses the risk of prolonged water stress, supply disruption, and land degradation. Adaptation capacity data includes water works, water storage, water amenities, and groundwater well access.

• Inland Flooding: Identifies risk from riverine flooding, flash flooding, and heavy rainfall runoff. Adaptation capacity data includes surface porosity, flood barriers, drainage systems, storage and control infrastructure, and nature-based flood solutions.

• Coastal Flooding: Analyzes risk from sea-level rise, storm surge, coastal inundation, and erosion. Adaptation capacity data includes coastal defenses, natural buffers, drainage capacity, and coastal flood control infrastructure.

• Wildfire: Assesses the likelihood and potential impact of wildfire on structures, infrastructure, and surrounding land. Adaptation capacity data includes fire response infrastructure, fire prevention measures, and fire detection systems.

• Hurricane: Assesses the risk of tropical cyclones, including damaging wind, heavy rainfall, and compound flood impacts. Adaptation capacity data includes building strength, storage and control infrastructure, and flood barrier proximity.

• Hail: Assesses the risk of damaging hailstorms that can impact roofs, facades, glazing, vehicles, and exposed equipment. Adaptation capacity data includes building strength and other local protection proxies that reduce surface damage exposure.

• Landslide: Evaluates the risk of slope failure caused by unstable terrain, saturated soils, and ground movement. Adaptation capacity data includes vegetation cover and proximity to manmade barriers that help stabilize slopes.

• Earthquake: Assesses seismic risk from ground shaking and related ground failure affecting structures and infrastructure. Adaptation capacity data includes building strength and building sparsity, which help indicate likely structural resilience and spillover vulnerability.

Use cases

• Site selection and acquisition due diligence

• Portfolio risk assessment and management

• Adaptation planning and resilience investment

• Climate risk disclosures and reporting, including GRESB, TCFD, IFRS S2, ISSB, EU Taxonomy, and others

• Stakeholder engagement and communications

Data details

• Resolution: Up to 100 meters in spatial resolution

• Timescales: 2025, 2035, 2050, 2100

• Emission Scenarios: SSP245, SSP370, SSP585

Detailed Methodology

Please fill out our Methodology Request Form, and a member of our team will get back to you, typically within one business day.

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