Mash-up technologies are helping Lloyd’s of London to inform insurers on climate-based threats.

Over the past year, the organisation has worked with collaborators such as Google Earth, Infoterra and Nasa to produce maps which can illustrate varied threat levels across a given geographical area. These have included the potential impact of a hurricane on the US, and effects of the floods that hit the UK last year.

These visualisations offer a quick way to bring people up to speed with complicated data, said Peter Hambling, chief information officer at Lloyd’s.

“During the 2007 floods our underwriters found the pictures we were producing really useful, since they could look at a detailed map and see whether someone was claiming from an area where there was a high probability of damage,” he said.

“In IT terms these are much smaller initiatives than a lot of the ones we are doing, but they certainly win technology a seat at the table in terms of adding value to the business.”

Open source mash-ups are becoming increasingly popular as an affordable way to showcase geographical data. Last month the UK Met Office unveiled its own Google Earth project, which showed how climate change will affect the planet.

“These tools are becoming increasingly powerful and are being used by a growing number of people,” said a Met Office spokesman. “Many companies will see these applications as an easy and attractive way to communicate with audiences.”