MicroWorlds as a Tool for Policy Making

The Hungarian government is experiencing escalating costs for flood mitigation measures and for economical compensation to victims. In a joint research project between the International Institute of Applied System Analysis (IIASA) in Austria, Computer and System Science Department (DSV) in Sweden, and the Hungarian Academy of Science, the flooding problem of Upper Tisza in Hungary is investigated. A catastrophe simulation model has been implemented, where different policy options are tested and evaluated. We investigate how the willingness to buy insurance affects the results on the macro-level and on the micro-level.