{"id":7541,"date":"2026-06-26T10:53:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-26T14:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/?page_id=7541"},"modified":"2026-06-26T12:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-06-26T16:53:11","slug":"sorenson-liberty-mutual","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/sorenson-liberty-mutual\/","title":{"rendered":"Utilizing GIS To Visualize and Quantify the Risk of Extreme Weather"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t<ul class=\"profile-listing profile-format-advanced\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\n<li class=\"profile-item profile-item-advanced has-title post-7354 profile type-profile status-publish hentry\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/profile\/jenna-sorenson\/\" class=\"profile-link profile-link-advanced\">\n\t\t<figure class=\"profile-photo profile-photo-advanced\">\n\t\t\t<img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-150x150.jpeg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-150x150.jpeg 150w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-768x764.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-1536x1528.jpeg 1536w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-550x550.jpeg 550w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-710x710.jpeg 710w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-300x300.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-600x600.jpeg 600w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/02\/2025_Jenna-Sorenson-100x100.jpeg 100w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>\t\t<\/figure>\n\n\t\t<h6 class=\"profile-name profile-name-advanced\">Jenna Sorenson<\/h6>\n\t\t<p class=\"profile-title profile-title-advanced\">Biology<\/p>\t<\/a>\n\n\t\n<\/li>\n\t\t\t<\/ul>\n\n<p><strong>Project Partner:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.libertymutualgroup.com\/about-lm\/our-purpose\/overview\">Liberty Mutual Insurance<\/a>, Spring 2026<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Summary:\u00a0 <\/strong>As climate change drives more frequent and severe weather events, insurers need<b> better tools to <\/b><b>understand<\/b> and price risk. During her internship, Jenna helped <b>bridge climate data and business <\/b><b>decision-making<\/b> by creating GIS-based visualizations that enabled underwriters to assess exposure and make more informed policy decisions. Her work involved cleaning and transforming large datasets, integrating them into ArcGIS Pro, and <b>developing maps that highlighted climate-related risks<\/b> across different regions. Jenna analyzed high-risk areas, visualized historical hazard patterns, and supported loss-scenario assessments. Key projects included mapping university campuses against historical hurricane tracks to evaluate <b>potential exposure<\/b> and creating a nationwide heat stress index map to <b>identify areas vulnerable<\/b> to extreme temperatures. By translating complex climate and geospatial data into clear, actionable insights, Jenna helped <b>improve data accessibility<\/b> across the company, <b>support<\/b> underwriting decisions, and <b>strengthen <\/b>client relationships.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;The tools and analyses I developed enabled stakeholders to better understand emerging risks and make more confident business decisions. This experience showed me how data analytics can drive real-world business outcomes beyond academic research. It strengthened my skills in GIS, data analysis, coding, cross-functional collaboration, and communicating technical information to non-technical audiences.&#8221;<\/em> &#8211; Jenna Sorenson<\/p>\n<p><strong>Project Deliverables:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>GIS maps presented and shared internally within organization<\/li>\n<li>Reports documenting repeatable methodology<\/li>\n<li>Research write-ups on ArcPro and Arc Online capabilities and best practices<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<figure id=\"attachment_7542\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7542\" style=\"width: 646px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" src=\"\/urban\/files\/2026\/06\/FEMA-Flood-Map-Data-636x369.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"636\" height=\"369\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-7542\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/06\/FEMA-Flood-Map-Data-636x369.png 636w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/06\/FEMA-Flood-Map-Data-1024x594.png 1024w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/06\/FEMA-Flood-Map-Data-768x446.png 768w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/06\/FEMA-Flood-Map-Data-1536x891.png 1536w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/06\/FEMA-Flood-Map-Data-800x464.png 800w, https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/files\/2026\/06\/FEMA-Flood-Map-Data.png 1630w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 636px) 100vw, 636px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-7542\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Web App Map Jenna developed as part of her internship to access publicly available FEMA<br \/>Flood Map data.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Watch Jenna&#8217;s URBAN internship lightning talk <a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/QAb6BOs9Fy4\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Project Partner: Liberty Mutual Insurance, Spring 2026 Project Summary:\u00a0 As climate change drives more frequent and severe weather events, insurers need better tools to understand and price risk. During her internship, Jenna helped bridge climate data and business decision-making by creating GIS-based visualizations that enabled underwriters to assess exposure and make more informed policy decisions. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24039,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7541"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24039"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7541"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7541\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7550,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7541\/revisions\/7550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/urban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}