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Writer's pictureCraig Kaiser

Evaluate Property Risks with LandGate's Risk Index Scores

Updated: Sep 19


Photograph of an irrigation ditch with text overlay "Evaluate Property Risks with LandGate's Risk Index Scores"

LandGate's unique platform offers crucial risk indexes for properties nationwide, delivering valuable insights to property owners, investors, and real estate professionals. This actionable intelligence empowers you to analyze and mitigate potential environmental and man-made risks in today's complex and ever-evolving real estate and energy markets. This resource explores LandGate's risk index scores, providing insights on how they're calculated and how to leverage the data to conduct due diligence and evaluate property risks.



Evaluate Property Risks with LandGate's Risk Index Scores

LandGate's property reports offer property owners, real estate professionals, land experts, and investors various distinct risk index scores, compared directly to regional averages. These scores are invaluable for commercial real estate, residential real estate, property owners, and property investors in identifying any potential contamination and environmental risks associated with properties.


1) Oil & Gas Contamination Risk Index

The Oil and Gas Contamination Risk Index is your go-to tool for gauging the environmental stakes tied to oil and gas activities and abandoned wells on any given plot of land. By crunching the numbers on geological traits, past land usage, how close infrastructure is, environmental sensitivity, and historical mishaps, this index provides a clear-cut risk score. This becomes a game-changer for everyone involved—whether you're an environmental planner, regulator, landowner, investor, or part of a community group—helping you make smart choices about land use and safety protocols.


The index takes a deep dive into various factors, examining geological quirks, past land activities, proximity to oil and gas setups, environmental sensitivity, and historical incident data. Each aspect is carefully evaluated, balanced, and rolled into a comprehensive score that paints a picture of the contamination risk from oil and gas operations in the area.


2) Industrial Contamination Risk Index

LandGate’s Industrial Contamination Risk Index offers a fresh perspective on understanding environmental risks! It provides a detailed assessment of potential contamination risks affecting human, environmental, and biological health for any given parcel of land.


Did you know that countless contamination sites dot the American landscape, often unbeknownst to nearby property owners? LandGate’s industrial contamination index shines a light on this hidden danger, evaluating the relative risk each site poses to individual parcels. We factor in the proximity and nature of these sites, transforming real estate due diligence from a complex task into easy-to-use data.


By harnessing both public and proprietary datasets, LandGate brings clarity to the issues that contaminated sites pose on real estate development. Our data scientists expertly condition and classify the data, making it accessible and relevant for everyday real estate processes. Through advanced algorithms, LandGate's property risk indexes offer insights into the relative risks of remediated and non-remediated sites, empowering users to make informed decisions in their real estate ventures.


You can leverage LandApp to find the location of contaminated sites across the country, such as Superfund sites and toxic spill sites:


Screenshot of contaminated sites in LandApp


3) Electricity Blackout Risk Index

LandGate offers an insightful peek into the electricity blackout risk for any parcel. Imagine knowing how susceptible a property is to losing power due to storms, hurricanes, or even wildfires. Assessing these risks isn’t just a good idea— it’s essential! Power outages can throw a wrench into our daily lives, disrupting everything from casual movie nights to major industrial operations.


Whether you’re planning to install a home charging station or build a renewable energy project, understanding the local electricity dynamics is key. A sudden blackout can lead to unexpected financial hits and safety concerns, making it crucial to invest in backup power solutions and energy-efficient technology.


4) Cost of Electricity Risk Index

The LandGate Cost of Electricity Risk Index offers an insightful look into the potential for high electricity costs for consumers by delving into LMP data from wholesale energy markets. This evaluation pivots around four key risk factors. First, we unravel retail price volatility, measured by the standard deviation of local retail prices. Next, we dive into the volatility of LMP prices. But that’s not all—LandGate also uncovers the hidden premiums by comparing retail prices to LMP and local hub prices. To determine the risk level of high electricity costs at a specific site, we weigh these premiums against local pricing trends. If these premiums soar too high, it spells trouble for consumers aiming to purchase electricity, leading to a high-risk index score for electricity costs.


5) Electrical Connection Risk Index

The Electrical Connection Index evaluates the risk of lacking access to an electrical connection for any selected parcel of land. A high score on this index indicates a lower potential for establishing an electrical connection. This index is crucial for assessing how easily and efficiently an electrical connection can be set up for a particular parcel or location. LandGate takes into account several parameters: (1) proximity to nearby dwellings or renewable energy projects, (2) distance to the nearest substation, (3) presence of nearby renewable energy installations, and proximity to existing electrical infrastructure, including (4) transmission and (5) distribution lines. By examining these elements, LandGate’s Electrical Connection Index offers valuable insights into the accessibility and suitability of a location for grid connectivity, supporting informed decision-making in infrastructure development and planning.


Property owners, investors, and real estate professionals use this index to uncover how difficult it would be to install electricity on rural properties.  With this knowledge, they can better plan for the cost of electrical infrastructure and evaluate the feasibility of their properties and investments.


6) Drought Risk Index

LandGate’s Drought Risk Index offers a crucial snapshot of drought exposure for every parcel across the United States. If you’re eyeing a property with a high risk score, be prepared—it’s more likely to feel the sting of drought compared to parcels with lower scores. Many regions in the U.S. are highly susceptible to drought, and new homeowners might find themselves unwittingly moving into these parched areas. Imagine the shock of discovering restrictions on outdoor fun, landscaping, gardening, and even water usage after settling in! LandGate’s Drought Risk Index equips real estate buyers and developers with essential insights into how drought-prone each parcel is, ensuring informed decisions and smart investments.


7) Wildfire Risk Index

You can find out if your property is at risk for wildfires with the Wildfire Risk Index Score. The Wildfire Risk Score, developed by CoreLogic, delivers a detailed evaluation of wildfire risk, specifically designed to enhance underwriting, pricing, and risk mitigation strategies within the insurance industry. With the increasing frequency of devastating wildfires in the United States, assessing wildfire risk at the individual property level has become crucial because it impacts property values. Unlike other natural hazards, wildfires pose an annual threat, highlighting the importance of determining each property's susceptibility and understanding the factors that contribute to fire spread.


The CoreLogic Wildfire Risk Score employs a deterministic model to assess a property's wildfire risk, spanning 16 states across the U.S. This score, ranging from 5 to 100, is straightforward and normalized, providing valuable insights into potential wildfire threats. It integrates multiple factors, including slope, aspect, vegetation type, surface composition, wind, drought conditions, and proximity to areas at higher risk from windblown embers, offering a comprehensive wildfire risk assessment.


8) Hurricane Risk Index

LandGate's Hurricane Risk Indexes help you to assess a property's risk for hurricanes. Hurricanes present significant threats to both property and lives, making accurate assessment essential for risk management and mitigation. This index provides valuable information on the annual frequency and relative risk associated with hurricane winds.


It provides a comprehensive evaluation of hurricane wind probabilities, encompassing various factors such as maximum sustained wind speed, storm size, track, gust factor, and terrain friction impact. It offers users a nuanced understanding of the likelihood of hurricane wind events occurring within specific areas, facilitating effective risk assessment and management strategies.


9) Natural Earthquake Risk Index

The Earthquake Index, part of CoreLogic's 2022 Earthquake Risk Score Layer, measures earthquake risk across the U.S. It uses a model that looks at how much the ground might shake and how intense the shaking could be to predict possible building damage during an earthquake. Earthquakes can have extremely detrimental impacts to properties with buildings, so assessing earthquake risk is crucial. The index rates risk from very low to very high, helping to understand and reduce earthquake impacts on properties and infrastructure.


10) Tornado Risk Index

The Tornado Index offers a thorough assessment of the likelihood of tornadoes, accounting for various intensities and geographical patterns. It equips users with critical insights into the chances of tornado-related wind events in specific regions, thereby aiding informed decision-making in risk management and insurance underwriting. Tornadoes can severely damage properties, making it an essential risk to consider when it comes to investing in property.


The Index synthesizes data from multiple sources to estimate tornadic wind probabilities. These include the NOAA Storm Prediction Center (SPC) reports spanning 1950 to 2016, and the NCEP North American Regional Reanalysis (NARR) data from 1979 to 2016. Historical tornado reports from the SPC database form the basis for analyzing tornado intensity, path length, width, and distribution. Advanced analytical models, utilizing long-term frequency data from the NARR dataset, meticulously smooth the footprints of tornadic winds to present a continuous map of wind probability.


11) Straight Line Wind Risk Index

Released by CoreLogic in 2019, the Wind Risk Score is a sophisticated tool crafted to evaluate the threat of damaging winds—straight-line, tornadic, and hurricane—across the contiguous United States. This index offers annual frequencies for varying wind speed categories along with risk scores, enabling insurers to effectively assess and mitigate potential losses. Straight line winds are the most damaging type of wind risk for properties with buildings, so it's essential to consider this risk when buying or investing in properties.


The Wind Risk Score is a geospatial dataset that integrates diverse data sources to quantify the annual frequency and risks tied to damaging wind events. It covers straight-line, tornadic, and hurricane winds, offering insights into the probability and severity of wind-related losses. This comprehensive layer employs advanced methodologies and proprietary weather event data to provide precise and detailed information for risk assessment and management.



How to Use the Risk Index Scores

Understanding and effectively utilizing property risk index scores is essential for making informed real estate decisions. These scores, designed to evaluate various environmental and natural disaster risks, can significantly impact the value and safety of a property. By comprehensively analyzing these indices, potential buyers, investors, and developers can assess the potential hazards associated with a property and make strategic decisions to mitigate risks.


Learn if Property Could be Contaminated

Finding out if a property is contaminated is a crucial consideration for all types of property- land, commercial properties, and residential properties can all be impacted by contamination. Contamination also affects property values, making it an important consideration for real estate professionals.


When you get a free property report on LandGate's map, you'll be provided with in-depth data regarding the nearest contaminated site and its remediation status:


Screenshot of industrial contamination data
Industrial contamination data from LandGate's free property report

Make Informed Property Decisions

Risk index scores are invaluable allies in the decision-making journey for real estate professionals, property owners, buyers, and investors. They paint a vivid picture of potential hazards—droughts, wildfires, earthquakes, tornadoes, and straight-line winds—allowing stakeholders to carefully assess the risks tied to each property before diving into a purchase or investment. Armed with accurate risk assessments, buyers can skillfully negotiate better terms with sellers or insurance providers, protecting their financial investments from unexpected natural disasters. Developers, too, can use these scores to craft strategic construction plans, steering clear of high-risk areas and ensuring safety standards are met. Similarly, residential property owners and real estate agents can use the risk index scores for conducting due diligence.


Plan Property Risk Mitigation Strategies

Effectively using LandGate's property risk index scores is a game-changer in the world of property management and investment. By weaving risk assessment into the broader tapestry of real estate strategy, these scores become a vital conversation starter for agents with potential buyers, shining a light on both the challenges and solutions a property might face. Incorporating these scores into decision-making doesn't just assess risk; it empowers strategic actions that protect investments, boost property resilience, and champion sustainable development.


Start by diving into the scores relevant to the natural hazards in the property's area. For example, a high wildfire risk score could prompt property owners to adopt fire-resistant landscaping and construction materials. Insurance providers can leverage these scores to customize coverage and premiums, ensuring policies match the real risks involved and offer protection against specific threats. Developers can use these insights for thorough due diligence, steering clear of high-risk zones prone to natural disasters, which not only saves on potential damage costs but also supports safer community planning.


Get a Free Property Report

With a free LandGate account, you can create 1 free property report that contains each value index and more data to help you learn more about your property and its value and potential risks:



Assess Property Risks Nationwide with LandApp

Interested in creating unlimited property reports to utilize the risk indexes for properties nationwide? Subscribe to LandApp today for just $10 monthly! Our user-friendly platform allows you to easily browse and analyze properties using different filters and criteria, giving you an in-depth look at potential environmental and man-made risks associated with a property. Don't miss out on valuable insights that will transform your property due diligence process:



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