Run an Event Response Analysis

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Run an Analysis

Automated notifications can help you proactively manage active events, but you may still need to manually run an analysis, past scenario or a custom footprint. The Event Response application gives you access to all available hazard data across all perils in one place. The analysis helps you understand how an active or historical event may impact your insured portfolio by combining hazard footprints, severity data, and your financial metrics.

Steps to run an analysis are detailed below:

Select an Event

To get started, first filter, sort, and search to find an event from our extensive catalog.

Event Response screen displaying the ‘Select Event’ view. A searchable table lists available events with columns for event type, event name, provider, severity indicators shown as colored dots, and event date ranges. A link at the top allows switching to ‘Select Custom Shapefile.’ The interface includes pagination controls at the bottom.
Select an event from the catalog

Or click the Select Custom Shapefile tab at the top to choose your own custom shapefile to use as a footprint.

Event Response interface showing the ‘Select Custom Shapefile’ tab active. The screen displays a searchable list of user‑uploaded shapefile datasets, with columns for dataset name and creation details. A vertical list of shapefile options is visible, each with a right‑arrow icon for selection. The tab header highlights that users are choosing a custom shapefile instead of selecting a standard event.
Select your own custom shapefile to use in the analysis

Select Perils

After selecting an event, you can view and choose from all available providers (both public and commercial) and perils (e.g., hurricane or storm surge) relevant to your analysis.

  1. Use the checkboxes to select which hazards and perils to include.
  2. Click a hazard title to preview the footprint.
  3. Click the clock rewind icon to select from past vintages to review the point of landfall, or see how the storm has changed from prior forecasts.
Peril‑selection screen for an event titled ‘Michael – Oct 06 2018 to Oct 12 2018.’ The left panel lists hazard data providers, each with checkboxes for selecting individual hazard layers such as wind, storm surge, and inland flood. The right side displays a map with the storm’s forecast and historical track shown as a shaded event footprint along the U.S. East Coast and across the Atlantic. A legend in the upper‑right corner labels the footprint. A button at the bottom of the left panel allows users to add selected hazards to the analysis.
Peril selection screen

Screen showing the past‑vintages view for Hurricane Michael’s NOAA wind data. The left panel lists multiple timestamped forecast and analysis vintages, each marked with a colored severity dot, with the latest vintage highlighted and marked as selected. The right panel displays a map with the storm’s event footprint and track shaded across the Caribbean and up the U.S. East Coast. A legend indicates the footprint colors. The layout helps users compare how the storm’s projected path and intensity changed across different vintages.
Past vintages screen

TIP! Download a PDF for each provider and hazard for more info, including when you can expect updates and what your dataset will look like after running the enhancement. View all providers here.

If you ran a custom footprint, you’ll skip the peril‑selection step and instead choose an enrichment column. This column serves as a substitute for the severity data that would normally accompany an event from a standard vendor.

Modal titled ‘Configure Enrichment Column,’ shown when a user uploads a custom footprint and skips the peril‑selection step. The screen displays a dropdown menu prompting the user to select an enrichment column, which serves as the severity input for the analysis since no vendor‑provided hazard data is available. Buttons at the bottom allow the user to select a different hazard or confirm the dataset selection.

Identify Portfolio

Next, use the modal shown here to choose the portfolio dataset you want to include in the analysis. If the dataset contains policy information (highly recommended), you’ll provide additional details about it in the next step. Learn how to join a policy file to your location file.

Select Dataset’ modal displaying a searchable list of available datasets for use in the analysis. Each dataset row shows the dataset name, number of records, creation and modification timestamps, and sharing or access indicators. A column on the right provides a ‘Select’ link for choosing the dataset. Sorting options appear in the upper‑right corner, currently set to sort by Date Modified.
Select Portfolio Modal

Set Up Financial Calculations & Edit Damage Factors

Next, a modal will appear where you can select your financial metric(s) and adjust damage factors.

If you chose a portfolio that includes a joined policy file in the previous step, you can use that information here to help the analysis more accurately calculate your exposure to the event. The financial metric dropdown will display any perils from your policy data. You can apply the same metric (peril) to all hazards, or uncheck the box to choose different metrics for each one (e.g., if your flood and wind coverages use different metrics).

If you don’t have policy information, you can use Total Insured Value (TIV) as a proxy, though results will be less precise since policy terms aren’t available.

Learn more about SpatialKey’s financial model.

Modal titled ‘Set Up Financial Calculations,’ showing options to apply the same financial metrics for all perils and a dropdown to select the metric. A prominent ‘Edit Damage Factors’ link allows users to adjust peril‑specific damage assumptions before running the analysis. Additional options include enabling email notification when the analysis completes, along with Back and Run Analysis buttons.
Set Financial Metrics & Edit Damage Factors

Edit Default Damage Factors

You can also adjust damage factors for an individual analysis during the Set Up Financial Calculations step. If no changes are made, the analysis will use the organization-level defaults (see Default Damage Factors).

You can define damage percentages for each peril selected in earlier steps. Click the pencil icon to edit a peril, then specify damage values for each severity level.

Damage Factors modal displaying editable severity bands and damage percentages for multiple perils, including wind, cone, storm surge, and probabilistic surge. Each peril appears in its own card with severity ranges listed on the left and default 100% damage values on the right. Pencil icons indicate that each peril’s damage factors can be edited. A Close button appears at the bottom of the modal.

For example, hail events with severity 3.0+ inches may be assigned a higher damage percentage than 0.25 inches, improving the accuracy of exposed-limit calculations.

Edit Damage Factors modal showing editable damage percentages for hail severity levels. The screen lists severity bands on the left, such as 3.0+ inches and 2.5–2.75 inches, with corresponding percentage inputs on the right. Some fields are populated with custom values, while others remain at zero. A Save button appears at the bottom to confirm updates.

Any custom damage factors you apply will appear in the dashboard as calculated columns on the Locations tab. When custom damages are used, this will be clearly indicated in the labeling (for example, “Damaged TIV”).

Run Analysis

Finally, click Run Analysis. SpatialKey will process your portfolio, assess potential event impact, and calculate your financial exposure. You can wait on this screen for the analysis to finish, or click Return to Apps to continue working while it runs in the background.

If you selected Send Email When Complete in the previous step, you’ll receive an email once the analysis finishes. Regardless of that setting, you’ll also get a notification in the application’s header notifications panel.

Screen displaying a progress message titled ‘Running your analysis’ with a horizontal loading bar underneath. A message explains that the analysis may take some time and that the user can continue working in SpatialKey while the process completes, with a notification sent when finished. A blue button labeled ‘Return To Apps’ appears below the message.

FAQs

Providers are data sources (public or commercial). Multiple providers may offer different hazard models or footprints for the same event so you can compare methodologies. See All Event Response Data Available.

Past vintages are older forecast snapshots. You might use them to review how a storm’s track or intensity changed over time or to validate model vs. actual outcomes.

You can run only one event at a time, but within that event (e.g., a hurricane) you can choose multiple hazards and peril types—such as wind, surge, or flood—from any combination of providers.

You can select Total Insured Value (TIV) as a proxy. Results remain useful but less precise because deductible, limit, and coverage terms cannot be applied.

Learn how to join a policy file to your location file and Learn more about SpatialKey’s financial model.

Damage factors represent expected loss percentages at each severity level. Editing them allows you to reflect internal assumptions, vendor guidance, or peril‑specific nuances (e.g., hail damage). Learn how damage factors work in Event Response.

Edits you make during the setup of a manual analysis apply only to that single analysis—they do not change your organization’s defaults.

However, if you are an administrator and you update global default damage factors, those changes will apply to all future analyses run across the organization (unless a user manually overrides them for a specific analysis).

Learn about default vs. custom damage factors.

It varies based on dataset size and number of hazards. You can stay on the page or move on to other tasks. You’ll get a notification—and optionally an email—when it’s done.

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