Environmental scientist Monalisa Chatterjee is reforming California’s fire insurance industry to protect vulnerable communities. Here she surveys damage caused by the 2024 Bridge Fire on Mt. Baldy. (Photo: Misha Gravenor.)
USC Environmental Studies professor Monalisa Chatterjee works to improve California’s Fire Insurance Industry
Original story by Rachel B. Levin
USC Environmental Studies program associate professor Monalisa Chatterjee has spent her career studying climate change risks and climate adaptation. Most recently, her area of focus has shifted to a climate challenge that has impacted the lives of many Californians: wildfires.
Although Chatterjee acknowledges that the state has done much to address the problem, such as investing in wildfire fighters and working with Indigenous community to incorporate traditional forest management practices, California has ways to go to improve its fire insurance market. As climate change intensifies conditions that can lead to more catastrophic wildfires, Chatterjee now examines insurance policy issues and works to develop a model that better accounts for these risks.
“Wildfires present an excellent opportunity to develop a collective approach to risk management,” says Chatterjee. “We 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.”