Geospatial Insurance Consortium (GIC)
Started as an initiative of the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB), the GIC is an at-cost, member-centric organization dedicated to informing, improving, and accelerating decision-making, operational efficiency, risk mitigation, and digital innovation for insurers. The program delivers unparalleled nationwide coverage, with an existing collection footprint of 7.6 million km2 and 99.6% population coverage. This also includes information on over 133 million footprints in the contiguous U.S.
By offering remarkably clear aerial imagery and geospatial data, structured membership levels, mapping-grade imagery and data, a proven partner network and unmatched industry expertise, members receive premium access and support to better grow and support their organizations.
Imagery is collected by the Vexcel Group which serves as the operations partner for the GIC. Vexcel is the industry leader in photogrammetry and uses market-leading UltraCam camera sensors to collect urban and rural imagery. Vexcel Group owns and manages the largest fleet of aerial operations dedicated to the insurance industry.
Collection Programs
The GIC offers the highest caliber of imagery and geospatial data. This data is known as “Blue Sky” (oblique, ortho, multispectral, DSM) and “Gray Sky” (natural disasters and catastrophe response).
Blue Sky products
• Oblique imagery: a 45-degree, multi-perspective view of urban areas delivered at a resolution of 7.5cm (2.9”) or better. Allows members to virtually walk a property and see it from all sides.
• Orthomosaic imagery: a variety of top-down views are available, including TrueOrtho in urban areas without seamlines or parallax (building lean), delivered at 7.5cm (2.9”) resolution; Urban Ortho in major metro areas at 7.5m resolution; and Wide Area Ortho in urban and rural areas, covering 99% of the population, at 15cm resolution.
• Multispectral: imagery collected along the undetectable-to-the-human-eye fourth band, near infrared, and colorized and delivered as color-infrared (CIR). Allows members to quickly detect vegetation, water surfaces, and other impervious surfaces.
• Elevate: Digital Surface Model (DSM) depicting 3D height information of objects on the earth’s surface and Digital Terrain Model (DTM) data, showing bare earth elevation. Created during aerial captures so members get a perfect pixel-to-data match between GIC products.
• Elements: access 40+ property and building automated attributes on residences and commercial buildings, such as roof details, defensible space information, pools, hardscapes, and more in seconds.
Gray Sky
The flagship program of the GIC is Gray Sky, the most comprehensive disaster capture program in the industry. Collecting disasters since Hurricane Harvey in 2017, the GIC is committed to responding quickly to major weather events such as tornados, hurricanes, wildfires, and other major disasters. Aerial imagery is available to members within quickly after collection, delivered at the highest resolution possible so members have a clear understanding of the full impact of a CAT event. Damage Assessment automated insights are also available following a disaster.
The GIC Advantage
Insurers need up-to-date aerial imagery and geospatial information that is comprehensive and precise. The GIC offers a competitive edge to insurers to enhance their policy workflows, from beginning to end.
The GIC is committed to offering a host of benefits to its members, including but not limited to:
• Providing the most accurate, consistent library of aerial imagery and geospatial data
• Offering catastrophe response that empowers members and first responders to offer rapid support to those in need
• Building an arsenal of tools and analytics that optimize imagery for deep insight and automated analyses of location data
• Reducing costs associated with underwriting, claims, and investigation processes all while providing superior customer support
• Enabling the automation of claims for