The Visual Exploration of Insurance Data in Google Earth

Visualisation and geovisualisation techniques can both complement and help communicate the results of GIS and other analyses in the exploration of multivariate datasets and may provide insights and solutions for managing exposure and potential loss. Graphical techniques and the use of geobrowsers such as Google Earth are also being used in a communicative role to engage a variety of different audiences within insurance companies with information about policies, exposure and potential losses. In this paper, we focus on one particular geo-browser, Google Earth, which provides access to a rich array of datasets including aerial imagery, roads, administrative boundaries and photographs and, importantly, allows additional data to be added through the welldocumented KML format.