Talbot Underwriting Australia has compiled a national database detailing more than $800 million of commercial property losses last year, which will be made publicly available online from June.

The Lloyd’s coverholder’s MD Adam Matteson says the resource will promote discussion on loss themes and trends, unlock the intellectual capital provided by the claims and improve resilience to natural catastrophes and major fires.

“The database will use visualisation techniques to highlight the geographic extent to which weather activity has affected the country, and will have location-specific fire losses catalogued,” he told insuranceNEWS.com.au.

About 90 “collaborative partners” from the underwriting and claims industries, government and academia have contributed to the database.

Mr Matteson believes the initiative is consistent with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s innovation agenda, and he expects a positive reaction.

“This is an exciting innovation that will provide great benefits to decision-makers ranging from risk managers to fire services planners, but in many respects unlocking this data will have benefits we can’t even see yet.

“We believe there is a lot of value in unlocking the vast amount of information around claims, but once we make the data publicly available we will keep an open mind about how that value will be realised by the various stakeholders.

“One very important benefit of this database is that it will make people think and talk about risk and resilience.

“Once you provide data of this kind, it creates informed conversation around solid science.”