- Academic researchers have long studied the potential impacts of climate change, but public databases lack critical property-level details.
- Granular hazard, property, and parcel data allows research teams to analyze how physical attributes shape the true impact of severe weather events.
- With a better understanding of structural exposure, researchers can uncover key insights that inform public policy, economics, and community resilience.
When it comes to climate research, the key challenge is no longer determining whether climate change is occurring, but understanding how specific communities, neighborhoods, campuses, and structures will be impacted.
Academic researchers are uniquely positioned to lead this transition, but trying to answer the questions of what now, what next, and what if can be challenging without granular property data.
By looking at individual buildings, parcels, and markets, researchers can better understand the impact of extreme weather events, evaluate local resilience projects, and measure the economic and social impact of climate hazards.
Measuring the climate discount in real estate valuation
To understand how long-term risks shape capital markets, Asaf Bernstein, Associate Professor of Finance at the University of Colorado Boulder, investigated whether today's real estate prices reflect tomorrow's environmental threats.
In a 2018 research paper titled Disaster on the Horizon, Bernstein and his research team explored how long-term risks that may not fully manifest for decades – like sea level rise – impact home prices. They compared virtually identical properties in the same ZIP code with only one key difference: one would remain dry if the sea level rises six feet, while the other would be inundated on a regular basis.
The findings revealed that properties exposed to sea level rise sell for 7% less than their dry equivalents. Even homes that aren't projected to see flooding for nearly a century have roughly a 4% discount today, proving that property prices are set with long-horizon risks in mind.
The granularity gap in academic climate research
While illuminating, Bernstein's research faced a common bottleneck: a lack of granular property data. Having only one dot per parcel meant researchers knew very little about a building's actual footprint, foundation, or first-floor height – all of which can influence the impact of severe weather events.
For researchers, granularity is what makes data usable. Looking back, Bernstein imagines how much more impactful his team's research could have been with the right spatial and property intelligence. Knowing the intervening contours of a landscape and specific structural designs of a building would have helped researchers explain why two coastal homes at the same elevation face wildly different levels of exposure.
When every structure has a damage classification, researchers can test hypotheses based on observed outcomes rather than just modeled averages. That supports better research into climate risks, urban planning, public policy, economics, and climate resilience.
From broad projections to structure-level specifics
Cotality has a long and rich history of supporting university research. More than 900 peer-reviewed papers have been published using our proprietary data, which sheds light on over 154 million parcels and 200 million structures.
The inner workings of a property can dramatically change its risk profile. By linking physical attributes – like building conditions and characteristics – to financial outcomes like reconstruction costs, insurance affordability, and property value, we help researchers understand the domino effect of climate risk.
It's not just about the impact on the physical structure. It's also about the financial impact on property owners. Our data creates the foundation for a cost benefit analysis oriented around resilience efforts and structural hardening. For example, a Cotality flood catastrophe model analysis revealed that elevating first-floor height by just one foot across a client portfolio reduced estimated damages by $1.3 billion.
Get granular data for research & the classroom
Property-level evidence allows interdisciplinary research teams to test which interventions work, where they work, and what value they create.
When academic researchers combine rigorous methodologies with granular property intelligence, they can uncover key takeaways for policy leaders, financial markets, and vulnerable communities.
To learn more about how property data can be used for climate research, watch our on-demand webinar or contact us directly.
