A report released Sept. 9 by California Ocean Science Trust (OST), in partnership with UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography, analyzes the state of the science behind flood risk modeling and mitigation as part of an effort to incentivize risk reduction. The report assesses current flood modeling practices and offers eight recommendations to improve how mitigation infrastructure is reflected in the catastrophe models that are used to set insurance prices. Titled Strengthening Incentives for Flood Risk Reduction in Catastrophe Modeling and Insurance: Recommendations for California Coastal Counties, it calls for improved practices ranging from better representation of phenomena such as atmospheric rivers in the models, greater access to federal flood insurance data, and making it clear in insurance premiums what savings could be achieved through risk reduction.