12 April 2019 – Royal HaskoningDHV has acquired Ambiental, a UK-based leading provider of actionable intelligence from data to protect people, property and capital from flooding and climate change. The acquisition, which strengthens its position in the (re)insurance market, supports Royal HaskoningDHV’s strategy to provide clients with software and services in which its extensive engineering and consultancy knowledge is combined with data-driven and technology-based solutions. The infrastructure, industrial and insurance sectors are continuously looking for better insights to predict flood risk and prevent damage or economic losses to people and assets caused by flooding. In 2018 alone, natural disaster events across the world led to economic damage of $225 billion (1). It is very likely that extreme precipitation events will become more intense and frequent in many regions and climate change will amplify existing risks (2)

Note to Editor
1 https://www.aon.com/global-weather-catastrophe-natural-disasters-costs-climate-change-annual-report/index.html
2 IPCC, 2014: Climate Change 2014: Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Core Writing Team, R.K. Pachauri and L.A. Meyer (eds.)]. IPCC, Geneva, Switzerland, 151 pp. https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar5/syr/

For more information:
Suzette Schreuder, Press Officer Royal HaskoningDHV, +31 88 3482026 / +31 6 29098238
Stephanie Brain, Marketing Manager, Ambiental, +44 (0)203 857 8545

Royal HaskoningDHV is an independent company delivering engineering, consultancy and project management services since 1881. We have almost 6,000 professionals operating from across the world who are eager to innovate and co-create with clients and partners to have a positive impact on people, our living environment and the economy. More and more we connect the digital with the physical world. Together with clients and partners, we use data and algorithms to solve new challenges and prevent problems. We help our clients in their digital transformation and we support their business with better and faster execution of their ambitions. Enhancing society together! For more information visit our website: royalhaskoningdhv.com.

Ambiental provide advanced tools, data, digital maps and expert advice on flood risk assessment and management, we help to predict the location and severity of flooding, prevent damage, and protect lives, property and assets. The following businesses are part of Ambiental.

Ambiental Risk Analytics
Ambiental Risk Analytics (ARA) is a global specialist in flood modelling and flood risk, producing flood maps, flood datasets and flood catastrophe models that support better decision-making. Using predictive analytics, digital mapping and machine learning ARA creates knowledge from data. https://www.ambientalrisk.com

Ambiental Environmental Assessment
Ambiental Environmental Assessment (AEA) specialise in flood risk assessment, environmental reports & civil engineering focused on the UK market. https://www.ambiental.co.uk

The acquisition will help to ensure that customers benefit from the considerable opportunities that new technologies in the field of data science and natural hazard modelling and forecasting can provide in relation to flood resilience, loss reduction, risk management and technical risk pricing. Royal HaskoningDHV CEO Erik Oostwegel said, “We are excited to welcome the Ambiental team with their high-precision, productised analytics and data solutions. Together we can help our clients to better understand and reduce risks from flooding and other natural hazards using digital services and market-leading intelligence. Ensuring that money spent on flood risk modelling and management delivers the greatest possible impact on communities, corporates and infrastructure.

“Ambiental has a strong position in the (re)insurance market, complementary to our current market position and client base. The acquisition opens new and promising high-growth markets in international (re)insurance which are looking to better predict risks and prevent flood losses to people and properties,”  - Erik Oostwegel added.

The acquisition will accelerate growth of Royal HaskoningDHV’s flood-related digital services and associated recurring revenues. It will also enhance Royal HaskoningDHV’s flood resilience and environmental consultancy profile in the United Kingdom.

Ambiental CEO, Justin Butler Ph.D. commented, “Ambiental is very pleased to be joining Royal HaskoningDHV. This marks a special day in our journey to grow our global impact and our mission to offer customers continually enhanced, flood-related innovation and digital services. We deliver many complementary solutions, and together with Royal HaskoningDHV and their new partners, we will be able to offer even more compelling value propositions, and broader solutions using predictive analytics, data science, machine learning and computational risk modelling to an expanding global customer base.”

Dr Butler continued, “Counting leading domestic and international insurers and reinsurers amongst our customers, we appreciate the value they place on having our premium flood-risk and exposure modelling tools at their disposal. We are confident that jointly with Royal HaskoningDHV, our considerably enhanced global presence and footprint, with our combined unique data analytics, human resources and engineering expertise, will greatly contribute to our product offering and associated customer support. Our goal has always been to operate at the forefront of innovation. Further development and scaling of our solutions will directly benefit our customers by bringing them a unique package of data products, software and associated services for improved risk pricing, risk selection, accumulation control, actionable intelligence and portfolio modelling.”

Royal HaskoningDHV’s digital progress
Since launching its new strategy in 2017 with a clear focus on data and digital, Royal HaskoningDHV is introducing new digital ways of working, new digital services (e.g. BlueLabel) and is co-creating with clients, start-ups, and strategic partners for solutions with real impact.

Recent strategic partners include data intelligence lab HAL24K, data science company Ynformed, hybrid software & consultancy firm Lanner and Hydroinformatics Institute H2i.