Protecting People and
Investments with Open Data

Climate change is increasing flood risk in cities like Amsterdam, creating a challenge for real estate investors to keep properties valuable and resilient—to protect their investments, they must make informed decisions.

EU regulations require large investors to report on physical climate risks. The financial sector, however, often lacks the expertise to assess these risks and relies on external data providers—yet their assessments are inconsistent, leaving uncertainty about which one to trust.

Without trusted, transparent data, poor decisions are more likely, leaving assets exposed and communities unprotected. This poses a challenge for the local government:

How can they ensure their investments remain valuable while supporting resilient urban development?

Illustration of a heatwave strategy — Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the capital of the Netherlands, home to more than 1 million residents.

Concept of urban importance — Why it matters?

Examples of urban solutions — Seven urban realities

— Asset Risk Assessment

Case Study 6

SolutionAmsterdam used a combination of REACHOUT’s tools to find answers

Risk

Priority

Action

Understanding the risk

The Real Estate Asset Climate Testing (REACT) tool

APG, a pension investment company based in Amsterdam, used the Real Estate Asset Climate Testing (REACT) tool to analyse a random selection of properties from their European real estate portfolio.

They relied on open-source flood data and regional protection data to assess how climate change affects their assets.

**Figure 1:**
Overview of the REACT tool and its required input data, produced by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam

Priority

Ensuring scalability

The REACT tool

For APG, the REACT tool provided valuable insights that can be scaled beyond a single portfolio, contributing to broader efforts to enhance climate risk assessments in the financial sector. The tool supports building capacity within organizations on how risk assessments work. It also empowers data analysts to assess climate risk independently and guides discussions on real estate investments and city policies.

The need for better and more transparent data is still not filled. To scale its impact, cities and investors need standardized open data and clear methodologies to ensure climate risk assessments remain consistent across different regions and financial portfolios. In Amsterdam, expanding the use of the REACT tool at the city level could help bridge this gap, providing a foundation for more reliable and scalable climate risk assessments.

Action

Leveraging the Tool

The REACT tool

The REACT Tool is a simple, Excel-based tool with the potential to help policymakers and real estate managers evaluate different types of flood risks—coastal, river, and pluvial—using European-scale data that anyone can access and verify. It demonstrates how open data can enhance investors' and cities' confidence and transparency in climate risk assessments.

APG is committed to refining the tool and collaborating with industry stakeholders to improve its usability and impact. Cities like Amsterdam can play a key role by providing clear, publicly accessible flood data, ensuring that new developments are guided by reliable climate projections. Making risk data openly available reduces uncertainty for investors, helping align urban development with long-term resilience planning.