Author(s)

Fabrizio Terenzio Gizzi^*, Maria Rosaria Potenza, Cinzia Zotta

Institute for Archaeological and Monumental Heritage (IBAM), National Research Council (CNR), Potenza, Italy.

Insurance is an effective complementary countermeasure for unexpected losses brought about by natural hazards. Coverage can be a useful tool considering in particular that public funds available to compensate for damages are limited and the consequences of catastrophes are becoming more severe over the time. Bearing this in mind, the authors performed a study aiming to clear up the main aspects and limits of the insurance market of natural hazards for residential properties in Italy. The opening sections of the paper give an overview of both the historical extreme events in Europe and Italy, and the reasons for the low insurance penetration rate in Italy. After that, the paper goes to the core of the research casting light upon the insurance market in Italy and examining the features and possible drawbacks of the available insurance covers. In this paper, the geophysical (seismic and volcanic) and hydrological (landslide and flood) hazards are analysed, and the residential stock is taken as a reference. After deepening in the local insurance market, the research focuses on the possible suggestions to stakeholders of how to increase the insurance penetration rate by taking advantage of the international experiences.

Natural Hazards, Damages; Risk Perception, Risk Management, European Insurance Schemes

Gizzi F.T., Potenza M.R., Zotta C. (2016) The Insurance Market of Natural Hazards for Residential Properties in Italy. Open Journal of Earthquake Research, 5, 35-61. doi: 10.4236/ojer.2016.51004.