Suncorp has opened the doors on a new high-tech facility designed to enhance the insurer’s response to extreme weather incidents.

Housed in Suncorp’s home base of Brisbane, the new state-of-the-art Disaster Management Centre (DMC) promises an invaluable suite of data tools and insights to help the insurer rapidly mobilise resources and reach disaster-affected customers sooner.

Among the technologies deployed include drone-sourced geospatial and aerial mapping tools, satellite imagery feeds, and real-time artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) analysis capabilities.

Among the most prized tools of the DMC is a nine-metre-wide control screen which integrates Suncorp data, geospatial mapping, real-time weather alerts, satellite and aerial imagery, AI, and emergency news feeds, covering disaster-affected communities and customers across Australia and New Zealand.

While, as Suncorp notes, many of these technologies have been in use since 2022 for its disaster response and management, the DMC for the first time consolidates these capabilities under one roof.

“The Centre’s market-leading technology, including aerial imagery and AI-powered damage detection, also enables us to virtually triage even the most severely impacted communities – a function that proved valuable during a recent storm that cut off access to a community, yet we were able to identify impacted customers and proactively contact them to get their claim started,” said Suncorp Group chief executive Steve Johnston.

Suncorp’s executive manager of claims platforms Naele Feltham noted the significant value of integrating multiple data sources within a coordinated central point to guide the insurer’s disaster response.

“We rely on imagery from satellites, aerial imagery from drones and mapping visualisation data to understand regional, street and suburb impacts. We also require weather analytics to understand all the perils that could be impacted such as storm, hail or cyclone.

“We’re able to bring all that data together in a centralised platform and apply machine learning and artificial intelligence to accurately provide data to our stakeholders and visualise exactly where impacts are to customers during weather events,” Feltham said.

Aggregated data is “safely and securely” hosted on AWS servers, Suncorp said. The DMC also leverages insights from geospatial data analytics firm Arturo to support post-disaster property analysis.

In addition to the use of aerometric aerial imaging, the insurer has also partnered with the Early Warning Network to help monitor natural hazards before and as they happen, combined with data drawn from the ICE (Ice Cloud and land Elevation) satellite.

“To be able to really zoom into street level, to understand impacts to customers and accurately provide data and visualisations to our stakeholders is crucial in the first few days,” Feltham said. “It means we can get boots on the ground sooner.”

Insights from the DMC will also be shared with government as well as key stakeholders in disaster response, including the State Emergency Service (SES), to help coordinate responses. The DMC’s design itself was informed by feedback from numerous partners, including the Queensland SES.

“We’ll share our capability and insights with governments, industry and emergency services to support disaster prevention, preparedness and protection,” Johnston said.

“For example, we’ll be able to explain to first responders where we’ve seen the water impacts in a flood and what damage has been caused by hail.

“The aim is to make sure we’re working together and coordinating both our preparation and response as best we can.”

Suncorp notes that the DMC is part of its $25 million jobs and investment commitment to the Queensland Government as part of the sale of Suncorp Bank.

As part of its commitment, Suncorp also added a new fleet of five new on-the-ground mobile disaster response hubs as well as the addition of 150 permanent full-time employees to support disaster response efforts.

“Our new fleet will be armed with a support team trained to assist customers impacted by extreme weather events across Australia, with hubs featuring tools and equipment, including solar-powered devices to help customers charge their phones, contact loved ones, and lodge their claims,” Johnston said.