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This article explores the relationship between digital transformation and disaster risk.Vulnerability studies aim at differentiating impacts and losses by using fine-grained information fromdemographic, social, and personal characteristics of humans. With ongoing digital development,these characteristics will transform and result in new traits, which need to be identified andintegrated. Digital transformations will produce new social groups, partly human, semi-human,or non-human—some of which already exist, and some which can be foreseen by extrapolating fromrecent developments in the field of brain wearables, robotics, and software engineering. Thoughinvolved in the process of digital transformation, many researchers and practitioners in the field ofDisaster Risk Reduction or Climate Change Adaptation are not yet aware of the repercussions fordisaster and vulnerability assessments. Emerging vulnerabilities are due to a growing dependency ondigital services and tools in the case of a severe emergency or crisis. This article depicts the differentimplications for future theoretical frameworks when identifying novel semi-human groups and theirvulnerabilities to disaster risks. Findings include assumed changes within common indicators of socialvulnerability, new indicators, a typology of humans, and human interrelations with digital extensionsand two different perspectives on these groups and their dependencies with critical infrastructure.
Emergency management services, such as firefighting, rescue teams and ambulances,are all heavily reliant on road networks. However, even for highly industrialised countries such asGermany, and even for large cities, spatial planning tools are lacking for road network interruptionsof emergency services. Moreover, dependencies of emergency management expand not only onroads but on many other systemic interrelations, such as blockages of bridges. The first challenge thispaper addresses is the development of a novel assessment that captures systemic interrelations ofcritical services and their dependencies explicitly designed to the needs of the emergency services.This aligns with a second challenge: capturing system nodes and areas around road networksand their geographical interrelation. System nodes, road links and city areas are integrated into aspatial grid of tessellated hexagons (also referred to as tiles) with geographical information systems.The hexagonal grid is designed to provide a simple map visualisation for emergency planners andfire brigades. Travel time planning is then optimised for accessing city areas in need by weighingimpaired areas of past events based on operational incidents. The model is developed and testedwith official incident data for the city of Cologne, Germany, and will help emergency managers tobetter device planning of resources based on this novel identification method of critical areas.
The reinsurance market continues to face major challenges – at this point we would like to outline just one of these, by way of example. The renewal of reinsurance contracts effective 1st January 2020 seems to present an-other disappointment for the reinsurance sector. This development is surprising for a substantial hardening of prices and conditions, not only in the retrocession area but also in the primary (corporate) insurance market. As a rule, a price increase in the retrocession sector is initially followed by a price rise in the reinsurance industry, which then ultimately also occurs in the primary (corporate) insurance market. Yet the trend we are currently witnessing seems to have skipped over the reinsurers. This confronts the reinsurance market with the question of whether – and, if so, when – the price adjustments will also take effect in the case of reinsurance contracts. The Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance analyses the latest developments in the reinsurance market and, where appropriate, monitors these through research pro-jects. In the process, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance links its research activities with practices in the reinsurance sector. Hereby, and facilitated through or-ganisation of the annual Cologne Reinsurance Symposium and the Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance [Förderkreis Rückversicherung], a bi-directional transfer of knowledge between theory and practice is pursued. The content of these two scientific events, as well as the completed research projects, are incorporated into scholarship and instruction at the Institute of Insurance Studies, rounding out practice-oriented training in the field of reinsurance. There are seven researchers, two employees responsible for research management and one administrative employee currently on the staff of the Cologne Research Cen-tre for Reinsurance. Thereby, all material and personnel costs are fully financed by third-party funds provided by the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance. Within the scope of its social and environmental responsibility, this year the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance dealt with the topics of climate protection, sustaina-bility and equality. Because these topics are at once global, national and individual missions, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance developed ideas and took measures to actively practice climate protection, sustainability and equality. In this ef-fort, great importance was attached to maintaining the level of quality while at the same time pursuing the objectives the Research Centre had set for itself in the above-men-tioned areas. While it is still in its beginnings, our initiative in the field of climate protec-tion and sustainability is manifested particularly in the most sustainable management of resources and travel we can achieve.
We want to thank the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance, the University leadership and administration, ivwKöln [the Institute of Insurance Studies Cologne] and the employees of the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance for all their support for the research projects and events of the past year.
The 13th Annual Meeting of the Sponsoring Group Reinsurance was held 26 June 2020. Due to COVID-19, the event was held online this year. Some 80 representatives of the (re)insurance companies involved in the Sponsoring Group took part in the meeting, along with guests. Offered for the sixth time as part of the Annual Meeting, the Researchers’ Corner gave the seven academic researchers at the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance an opportunity to deliver a presentation on the research project each in which each is involved in 2020.
In three sessions – each featuring 2-3 parallel lectures with posters – the most important results of the scientific studies by the Cologne Research Centre for
Reinsurance were presented and discussed. The heterogeneity of the topics
presented by academic staff reflects the dovetailing of Cologne Research Centre with reinsurance practice.
Session 1
a) Manuel Dietmann (M.Sc.): Preventive recovery planning for insurance companies
b) Robert Joniec (M.Sc., FCII, cand. PhD): Capital is fungible, the market is
growing more efficient – But how valid are research results?
c) Jörg Dirks (M.Sc., FCII): Cyber risks in reinsurance – Insurable on a parametric basis through AI?
Session 2
a) Wolfgang Koch (M.Sc., FCII): Trend in sovereign cat pools in emerging and developing economies
b) Fabian Lassen (M.Sc., FCII): Environmental social governance – A look at reinsurers
Session 3
a) Fabian Pütz (M.Sc., PhD): Reinsurance aspects of product recalls in the automobile sector
b) Lihong Wang (M.Sc., FCII): China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – Its impact
on the global (re)insurance industry
Poster session
a) Fabian Lassen (M.Sc., FCII): Private-public partnership – The solution for the insurability of pandemics?
b) Christian Serries (B.Sc.): Silent Cyber as a challenge for the (re-)
insurance industry
c) Frank Cremer (B.Sc. / FCII): Digital ecosystems – Relevance for reinsurance?
d) Harald Kurtze (B.Sc.): Sharing economy – Impacts for reinsurance?
With the publication series, ‘Proceedings of the Researchers’ Corner’, the Cologne Research Centre for Reinsurance meets the desire for publication of the research results of our scholars together with the accompanying posters and discussions. The titles are reproduced in keeping with the above agenda of the Researchers’ Corner
for the 13th Annual Meeting of the Förderkreis Rückversicherung [Sponsoring Group Reinsurance].
Proceedings des Researchers‘ Corner zur 13. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung 2020
(2020)
Am 26. Juni 2020 fand die 13. Jahrestagung des Förderkreises Rückversicherung
statt. Durch Covid-19 bedingt fand in diesem Jahr die Veranstaltung online statt.
Etwa 80 Repräsentanten der in dem Förderkreis mitwirkenden (Rück-)
Versicherungsunternehmen und Gäste nahmen daran teil. Im Rahmen der
Jahrestagung wurde zum sechsten Mal der Researchers‘ Corner durchgeführt, in
dessen Verlauf die sieben wissenschaftlichen Forscher*innen der Kölner
Forschungsstelle Rückversicherung je einen Vortrag zu dem jeweils bearbeiteten
Forschungsprojekt 2020 hielten.
In drei Sessions – mit je 2-3 parallel Vorträgen mit Poster – wurden die wichtigsten
Ergebnisse der wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen der Kölner Forschungsstelle
Rückversicherung präsentiert und diskutiert. Die Heterogenität der vorgetragenen
Themen spiegelt die Verzahnung der Kölner Forschungsstelle mit der
Rückversicherungspraxis wider.
Wärme‐ und Kältespeicher von Gebäuden beruhen auf verschiedenen Konzepten der Wärmeübertragung. Bei thermischen Hybridspeichern befindet sich das Phasen-wechselmaterial (PCM) makroverkapselt in PCM‐Objekten, die im Speicherbehälter positioniert sind und vom Wärmeträgerfluid umströmt werden. Die experimentellen Untersuchungen widmen sich den Belade‐ und Entladeeigenschaften des in Kugeln makroverkapselten PCM. Es wird gezeigt, dass die spezifische Wärmeübertragungs-leistung eines Hybridspeichers unmittelbar von der Größe der Kugeln als auch von der spezifischen Wärmeleitfähigkeit des PCM abhängt.
This paper presents a life cycle assessment (LCA) of photovoltaic (PV) solar modules whichhave been integrated into electric vehicle applications, also called vehicle integrated photovoltaics(VIPV). The LCA was executed by means of GaBi LCA software with Ecoinvent v2.2 as a backgrounddatabase, with a focus on the global warming potential (GWP). A light utility electric vehicle (LUV)named StreetScooter Work L, with a PV array of 930 Wp, was analyzed for the location of Cologne,Germany. An operation time of 8 years and an average shadowing factor of 30% were assumed.The functional unit of this LCA is 1 kWh of generated PV electricity on-board, for which an emissionfactor of 0.357 kg CO2-eq/kWh was calculated, whereas the average grid emissions would be 0.435 kgCO2-eq/kWh. Hence, charging by PV power hence causes lower emissions than charging an EV bythe grid. The study further shows how changes in the shadowing factor, operation time, and otheraspects affect vehicle’s emissions. The ecological benefit of charging by PV modules as compared togrid charging is negated when the shadowing factor exceeds 40% and hence exceeds emissions of0.435 kg CO2-eq/kWh. However, if the operation time of a vehicle with integrated PV is prolonged to12 years, emissions of the functional unit go down to 0.221 kg CO2-eq/kWh. It is relevant to point outthat the outcomes of the LCA study strongly depend on the location of use of the vehicle, the annualirradiation, and the carbon footprint of the grid on that location.
Against the background of a worldwide decrease in the number of gauging stations,the estimation of river discharge using spaceborne data is crucial for hydrological research, rivermonitoring, and water resource management. Based on the at-many-stations hydraulic geometry(AMHG) concept, a novel approach is introduced for estimating river discharge using Sentinel-1time series within an automated workflow. By using a novel decile thresholding method, no a prioriknowledge of the AMHG function or proxy is used, as proposed in previous literature. With arelative root mean square error (RRMSE) of 19.5% for the whole period and a RRMSE of 15.8%considering only dry seasons, our method is a significant improvement relative to the optimizedAMHG method, achieving 38.5% and 34.5%, respectively. As the novel approach is embedded intoan automated workflow, it enables a global application for river discharge estimation using solelyremote sensing data. Starting with the mapping of river reaches, which have large differences inriver width overthe year, continuous river width time series are created using high-resolution andweather-independent SAR imaging. It is applied on a 28 km long section of the Mekong River nearVientiane, Laos, for the period from 2015 to 2018.
The Enhancement of standard dense phase carbon dioxide (DPCD) pasteurization by additional mechanical effects wasassessed in this work. These effects were induced during pasteurization by the sudden depressurization in a narrow mini-tube. The high flow velocities, moderate pressures (40–80 bar) and low temperatures (25–45°C) lead to intense degasifica-tion and shear stress. The inactivation of the test microorganismEscherichia coliDH5a(E. coliDH5a) was determinedbefore and after depressurization in the minitube, representing entirely chemical DPCD via dissolved CO2and total inacti-vation comprising the effects of dissolved CO2and mechanical effects, respectively. Compared to conventional DPCDpasteurization, which is mostly attributed to chemical effects, the additional mechanical effects increased the inactivationefficiency considerably.
Enhancing DPCD in Liquid Products by Mechanical Inactivation Effects: Assessment of Feasibility
(2020)
The enhancement of standard dense phase carbon dioxide (DPCD) pasteurization by additional mechanical effects was assessed in this work. These effects were induced during pasteurization by the sudden depressurization in a narrow minitube. The high flow velocities, moderate pressures (40–80 bar) and low temperatures (25–45 °C) lead to intense degasification and shear stress. The inactivation of the test microorganism Escherichia coli DH5α (E. coli DH5α) was determined before and after depressurization in the minitube, representing entirely chemical DPCD via dissolved CO2 and total inactivation comprising the effects of dissolved CO2 and mechanical effects, respectively. Compared to conventional DPCD pasteurization, which is mostly attributed to chemical effects, the additional mechanical effects increased the inactivation efficiency considerably.