The number and severity of weather related catastrophes is
increasing. Economic losses from these catastrophes are
escalating, mainly as a result of concentration of assets and
population in high-risk areas. How to deal with these
economic liabilities in a fair way at the level of the individual
property owners is the focus of our research.
As a case study we choose the Tisza, a river in Hungary that
flows through one of the poorest agricultural regions of
Europe that frequently floods. The use of a simulation model
for evaluating alternative flood management policies is a
natural choice, since it is impossible to predict the time,
location and magnitude of a flood; historical data is of limited
use when looking at the outcome of future policies. The
behaviour of the river and the financial consequences are
simulated on a year-by-year basis.
Here we have extended the simulation model by using the
Consumat approach to model the individual property owners.
We compare the results with respect to wealth distribution in
the case of Consumat agents and simple (non-Consumat)
agents. In the Consumat case, the results show that system is
more dynamic and more realistic.