{"id":2486,"date":"2024-12-20T12:57:35","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T20:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/?p=2486"},"modified":"2025-01-31T15:58:10","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T23:58:10","slug":"snapshot-risky-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/snapshot-risky-business\/","title":{"rendered":"She\u2019s Got You Covered: Meet the Professor Working to Improve California\u2019s Fire Insurance Industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n Environmental scientist Monalisa Chatterjee is reforming California\u2019s fire insurance industry to protect vulnerable communities. Here she surveys damage caused by the 2024 Bridge Fire on Mt. Baldy. (Photo: Misha Gravenor.)\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n
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She\u2019s Got You Covered: Meet the Professor Working to Improve California\u2019s Fire Insurance Industry<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n By<\/span>Rachel B. Levin<\/strong>\n \n December 20, 2024<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Monalisa Chatterjee<\/a> has spent her career studying how humans adapt to extreme climate events such as tropical cyclones, urban floods and droughts. In recent years, the associate professor and graduate director of environmental studies<\/a> has turned her focus to a climate trend that\u2019s especially urgent in California: wildfires.<\/p>\n

\"Words<\/a><\/p>\n

Over the last two decades, the number of large wildfires in California has surged, causing tragic loss of lives, homes, trees and wildlife. California has risen to the challenge, allocating billions to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) and emerging as a leader in emergency response.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe state has invested heavily in training its wildfire fighters and equipping them properly,\u201d says Chatterjee. \u201cCalifornia is also working with Indigenous communities to incorporate traditional forest management practices, like controlled burns, to reduce excess fuels.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chatterjee has identified a critical gap in wildfire management that remains despite these advances: the state\u2019s fire insurance market. \u201cWhen it comes to wildfires, insurance is failing to protect Californians from risk,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

The devastating wildfires of 2017 and 2018 wiped out decades of profits for home insurance companies in California. In the aftermath, premiums have soared, forcing many homeowners to forego fire insurance and leaving them vulnerable to financial disaster. Many insurers have refused to renew policies for homes in high-risk areas, while others have exited the state altogether.<\/p>\n

Chatterjee notes that the state-run FAIR Plan, which offers basic fire insurance to those unable to obtain it elsewhere, is only a temporary stopgap solution to the state\u2019s insurance woes, due to its minimal coverage and rising costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cInsurance policies are designed with a rigid, one-size-fits-all risk assessment model,\u201d she says. \u201cWe need to develop a model that accounts for the unique risks associated with wildfires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chatterjee began scrutinizing the insurance issue while developing materials for her Environmental Risk Analysis course, a requirement for USC Dornsife\u2019s Environmental Studies<\/a> and Environmental Data Science<\/a> master\u2019s degree programs, the latter offered jointly with the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. With help from graduate student researchers, she is navigating the complexities of creating a new model by analyzing large datasets and talking to communities in high-risk areas. For example, she met with residents of a Santa Monica community who had pooled money to purchase their own secondhand fire truck and install water tanks for wildfire preparedness.<\/p>\n

Such cooperative actions can drive insurance innovation, helping to mitigate property loss and reduce the economic risks borne by insurance companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWildfires present an excellent opportunity to develop a collective approach to risk management,\u201d says Chatterjee. \u201cWe can incentivize people to make neighborhood improvements that make it less likely a wildfire will spread, which in turn will reduce insurance premiums and make policies more affordable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The clock is ticking; as climate change leads to hotter, drier conditions and human development continues to encroach on forested areas, the wildfire risk keeps growing.<\/p>\n

Yet, Chatterjee remains pragmatic. \u201cWe have to find a way of coexisting with fires,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n Burning Questions\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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While earning her master\u2019s degree in environmental data science at USC Dornsife and the USC Viterbi School of Engineering, Aurora Massari \u201924 worked as a research assistant for the wildfire insurance project led by Monalisa Chatterjee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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