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PortfolioCheck screens a Ghanaian bank's property/mortgage book for physical climate risk — flood, coastal/sea-level, extreme heat, riparian proximity, land/contamination and drought — at the level of each individual asset, then translates that into collateral and credit terms (haircut, stressed LTV, an indicative climate ECL overlay) and structures it for the Bank of Ghana Climate-Related Financial Risk Directive. It is built for bank risk & sustainability teams, and a Supervisor edition aggregates it for the Bank of Ghana.
The four surfaces
Dashboard
Live KPIs, a Ghana risk map, filters, the IPCC/NGFS scenario toggle and an action queue. Open →
Originate
Screen a single mortgage at application: refer / proceed-with-conditions / proceed. Open →
Board report & BoG return
The printable, regulator-ready report and the semi-annual return. Open →
Supervisor edition
The Bank-of-Ghana system-wide view across banks. Open →
Model validation
The Accra-2015 flood hindcast, parameter sensitivity, governance & changelog. Open →
Technical specification
The living review document — every formula & constant, auto-generated from the engine. Open →
BoG Directive alignment
The living clause-by-clause map to the Climate-Related Financial Risk Directive (2024) — what the tool produces, feeds, and leaves to the bank. Open →
Your first five minutes
- Open the Dashboard — it loads a synthetic 200-asset demo book, no sign-up.
- Read the summary and the headline KPIs (exposure at High+ risk, collateral shortfall, climate ECL).
- Flip the scenario & horizon (Today / 2030 / 2050 / 2100; IPCC or NGFS) to watch risk migrate.
- Click any asset to see its hazard profile, its future under each scenario, and to record completed adaptation measures that re-score it.
- Open the Board report and the BoG return to see the regulatory deliverables — then bring your own book via the upload.
Who built it & why you can trust the numbers
Built by Dr. Minka Aduse-Poku — a Ghanaian environmental & climate scientist (PhD, University of Cologne, 2025), peer reviewer for the Elsevier journals Urban Climate and Building and Environment, and published on climate-risk methodology. Independent and Ghana-focused — not a repackaged global product. The purpose of this page is that you can assess the tool yourself, cold, without taking anyone's word for it.
Nothing is hidden
Every formula and constant is published in the living technical specification — generated from the running engine, so it can never drift from the code.
It shows its own validation
An Accra 3-June-2015 flood hindcast (it flags the flooded localities and spares the higher ground) plus a parameter-sensitivity table — the evidence a model-validation team asks for.
Your data never leaves the bank
It deploys on-premise / air-gapped; the public demo runs in your browser and stores nothing. No book is uploaded to any vendor cloud.
No lock-in, continuation-proof
A standard open stack, no proprietary dependencies; the full methodology and code are portable and can be handed to your own team or any successor — not a black box tied to one person.
It is honest about its limits. This is screening-grade decision-support — not a property valuation, an insurance determination, or a substitute for your IFRS 9 / PD-LGD models; it covers physical (not transition) risk; and its financial constants are illustrative until calibrated to your own loss data. Every board report carries a gap register naming exactly what the screen does not do and who must close it.
On the regulator: the tool is built to the Bank of Ghana Climate-Related Financial Risk Directive and speaks its language — the semi-annual return, NGFS scenarios, PCAF data quality. We are actively willing to engage the Bank of Ghana to align it to their standardized disclosure template. That is offered as a collaboration, not a claim of pre-approval — the methodology is fully open here for any supervisor to examine.
Responsible use & data protection
This tool is for pricing and de-risking, not exclusion. Flagging a property as high-risk is an input to risk-based pricing, an adaptation condition, or a green / resilience loan — never a reason on its own to deny a community credit. Ghana's most climate-exposed neighbourhoods are often its most underserved; used well, the tool keeps credit flowing to them by turning a flood risk into a financeable, verifiable fix (the drainage / raised-plinth adaptation credits) rather than a blanket "no". It must not be used to redline a locality, and the borrower's individual circumstances and any completed adaptation must always be weighed.
Data protection (Ghana Data Protection Act, 2012 — Act 843). The tool screens property locations and loan attributes, not personal data — it needs only a location, exposure and LTV, not borrower PII. The public demo is wholly synthetic and stores nothing; an uploaded book is held in memory only. For a real book the tool deploys on-premise / air-gapped, so data never leaves the bank; accounts use hashed passwords and server-side sessions, and the app sends a strict set of security headers (HSTS, CSP, anti-framing, no-sniff).
Accessibility. The tool works toward WCAG 2.2 AA: risk is conveyed by text labels as well as colour (never colour alone), the map carries an accessible label and the same data is in the sortable table, the action queue is keyboard-navigable (tab to a row, press Enter), and animations honour the reduce-motion setting. A full independent audit is on the roadmap — if you hit a barrier, tell us and we'll fix it.
How the tool works
The pipeline: ingest a book → geolocate each asset (coordinates, GhanaPostGPS, or geocoded address) → screen six hazards → combine into a composite vulnerability → translate to money (AAL → collateral repricing → climate ECL) → project under IPCC/NGFS scenarios → apply recorded adaptation → output the dashboard, board report and BoG return.
The six hazards
| Hazard | What it captures |
|---|---|
| Flood | Pluvial / riverine flood susceptibility at the parcel (urban flood basins, drainage). |
| Coastal | Coastal erosion & sea-level rise from shoreline proximity and documented hotspots. |
| Heat | Extreme-heat / thermal stress (latitude gradient + urban-heat-island). |
| Riparian | Proximity to watercourses and their buffers. |
| Land | Protected-area / Ramsar / contamination land constraints. |
| Drought | Water-stress / dry-spell exposure (savanna north). |
Seed vs live screen, and satellite-observed flood
Two depths of screen. The seed model is an instant, offline Ghana-geography model — the right tool to triage a whole book fast. A live screen overlays the on-premise SafeGround and FloodGuard engines for an authoritative single-asset read, and is the default at origination. A live screen also queries Sentinel-1 — Copernicus C-band radar that sees through cloud, day or night — for observed flood: where the satellite actually recorded standing water on the parcel (UN-SPIDER change detection), the flood finding is floored at High and labelled as measured reality, distinct from modelled susceptibility, with the date it was seen. This is strongest for open-water / floodplain / riverine exposure (for example the Lower Volta / Akosombo 2023 floods); by its physics it does not capture brief urban flash-flooding under rooftops, so an empty result in a dense city is a sensor limitation, not an all-clear. Coverage (currently Greater Accra and the Lower Volta) is being extended nationwide under quality control.
Vulnerability score
Each hazard is scored 0–1. The composite is 50% weighted hazard load + 50% worst hazard, scaled to 0–100 and banded: Low <25 · Moderate 25–50 · High 50–75 · Critical ≥75. The 50% worst-hazard term means a single severe hazard cannot be diluted away by averaging.
The six weights adapt to each asset through its risk profile (coastal / floodplain / farmland / urban), so the most eminent threat leads the composite — a sea-threatened villa is led by coastal / sea-level, a field by drought. A coastal or floodplain designation also floors that lead peril at High (transparently, only ever raising a score). Untagged assets use the standard building weighting, unchanged, and every weight is recalibratable to the bank's own loss experience.
Hazard → money
Two channels, kept separate so neither is double-counted. (1) Physical damage (AAL): per-hazard Average Annual Loss = ceiling × score1.5, combined across hazards; mostly uninsured in Ghana, so it falls on the collateral. (2) Market repricing: a forward collateral devaluation as the market prices in a share of that AAL plus insurability — this raises stressed LTV and LGD. Both feed an indicative ECL = PD × LGD × EAD overlay, with a downturn-floored LGD and a PD that rises with negative equity and uninsured damage. The per-hazard AAL ceilings are calibrated against the JRC Africa flood depth-damage curve (Huizinga et al. 2017); the per-asset AAL is a transparent screening proxy (ceiling × score1.5), not a full depth-damage integration. Every constant is illustrative and exposed for calibration to the bank's loss data.
Forward-looking scenarios
Every asset can be pulled through the three IPCC AR6 pathways (SSP1-2.6 / SSP2-4.5 / SSP5-8.5) and the three NGFS pathways (Net Zero 2050 / Delayed Transition / Current Policies) across 2030 / 2050 / 2100. Each hazard is intensified by an AR6-grounded factor (Rx1day rainfall, hot-day count, consecutive dry days, sea-level rise) applied with a bounded saturating projection s' = s(1+kf)/(1+s·kf), so a projection never exceeds 1.0 and a high-risk asset saturates while mid-range assets move most.
Adaptation & evidence gating
A bank records the measures completed on a property (drainage/SuDS, raised plinth, floodproofing, property flood resilience, sea defence, cool/green roof, retention); each carries a defensible risk-reduction credit that flows through band, AAL and ECL. Credits combine multiplicatively with caps. Crucially they are conservative by default: a measure is self-reported (zero credit) until the asset is evidence-verified — so a bank cannot lower a regulatory figure by self-attestation alone. To claim credit, the bank ticks the completed measures on the asset and files them with "Submit to BoG with evidence" — the ticked measures are bundled with the supporting documents into a dated case for the supervisor; the credit flows only once the Bank of Ghana accepts that evidence, and every case carries a tamper-evident fingerprint.
Data quality (PCAF)
Every asset carries a PCAF-style 1–5 data-quality flag (a screening tool is never better than 3). The honesty layer means a supervisor always sees how good the underlying data is.
Frameworks
Outputs are mapped to the BoG Climate-Related Financial Risk Directive, the Ghana Sustainable Banking Principles, IFRS S2 / TCFD, NGFS and PCAF. The board report carries a framework-conformance matrix and an honest gap register.
FAQ
Grouped by who's asking. Use the search box above to jump to a topic.
General
What is PortfolioCheck, in one line?
Is it a property valuation or an insurance determination?
How accurate are the numbers — are they real?
Is my data safe?
Do I have to sign up or upload anything to evaluate it?
Who built this, and is it independent?
What happens to the tool if the vendor disappears? (continuity)
Responsible use
Won't flagging flood-prone areas lead to redlining poor communities?
Does it cover nature / biodiversity risk (TNFD)?
How does it fit the IFC SBFN and financial-inclusion goals?
How is personal data protected (Ghana Data Protection Act / Act 843)?
Is the tool accessible?
Banks
What data do I need to provide?
Does it replace my IFRS 9 / PD-LGD models?
Will the Bank of Ghana accept the output?
How do I screen a single mortgage at origination?
Can the risk weighting be tuned per asset — so a sea-threatened property is led by coastal risk?
Can it show that a property actually flooded, not just its modelled risk?
How does a bank submit adaptation evidence to the Bank of Ghana?
What does it cost?
Bank of Ghana
How does this help us supervise the CRFR Directive?
Are banks' submissions actually comparable?
How are adaptation (de-risking) claims kept honest?
EPA & environmental
What environmental and hazard data sources are used?
How is riparian proximity defined, and what buffer triggers a flag?
How are protected areas, Ramsar wetlands and contaminated land handled?
Does this align with or replace Ghana's EIA / EPA permitting?
Are the green-infrastructure adaptation credits scientifically sound?
IFC & World Bank
What is the scientific basis of the loss model?
How is the tool validated?
How does it handle systemic and concentration risk?
How does it map to the Sustainable Banking Principles, and what green-finance taxonomy?
Is it replicable beyond Ghana, and reproducible/auditable?
Abbreviations & glossary
Every abbreviation and key term used in the tool and its reports.
| Abbr. | Full term | What it means here |
|---|---|---|
| AAL | Average Annual Loss | Expected damage to a property per year as a fraction of its value (depth-damage × event frequency). The fundamental the money model is built on. |
| AR6 | IPCC Sixth Assessment Report | The latest IPCC assessment (2021–23); the scientific basis for the tool's hazard intensification factors. |
| BoG | Bank of Ghana | Ghana's central bank and banking supervisor; issuer of the Climate-Related Financial Risk Directive. |
| CDD | Consecutive Dry Days | A drought / dry-spell index used to project the drought hazard forward. |
| Composite vulnerability | 0–100 composite score | 50% weighted hazard load + 50% worst single hazard, banded Low/Moderate/High/Critical. |
| CRFR | Climate-Related Financial Risk | The BoG Directive (issued Nov 2024) requiring banks to manage and disclose climate risk. |
| EAD | Exposure at Default | The outstanding loan amount exposed if a borrower defaults; the E in ECL = PD × LGD × EAD. |
| ECL | Expected Credit Loss | PD × LGD × EAD. The tool produces an indicative annual-marginal climate ECL overlay (not a lifetime/staged IFRS 9 figure). |
| EPA | Environmental Protection Authority (Ghana) | Ghana's environmental regulator (an Authority under Act 1124, 2025); relevant to the environmental hazards and adaptation. |
| ESG | Environmental, Social & Governance | The broad sustainability frame within which climate risk sits. |
| ESRM | Environmental & Social Risk Management | The IFC/SBFN risk framework underlying Ghana's Sustainable Banking Principles. |
| FFE | Finished-Floor Elevation | The height of a building's floor above ground — a raised plinth is the strongest single flood-adaptation lever. |
| FSAP | Financial Sector Assessment Program | The IMF/World Bank assessment of a country's financial system, increasingly climate-aware. |
| GhanaPostGPS | Ghana national digital addressing | Ghana's digital address system (e.g. GA-183-4317); the tool resolves it to coordinates for object-level screening. |
| GMet | Ghana Meteorological Agency | The national met service; a hazard-data partner. |
| ICAAP | Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process | A bank's own capital-adequacy assessment; the Directive requires climate risk to be integrated into it. |
| ICAG | Institute of Chartered Accountants, Ghana | Co-develops the BoG Standardized Climate Disclosure Template with BoG. |
| IFC | International Finance Corporation | The World Bank Group's private-sector arm; runs the Sustainable Banking & Finance Network. |
| IFRS S2 | IFRS Sustainability Standard S2 (Climate) | The ISSB climate-disclosure standard the Directive aligns public disclosures to. |
| IPCC | Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change | The UN climate-science body; source of the SSP scenarios and AR6. |
| ISSB | International Sustainability Standards Board | Issuer of IFRS S1/S2. |
| JRC | Joint Research Centre (EU) | Source of the global flood depth-damage functions (Huizinga et al. 2017, World Bank-hosted) that anchor the loss model — Africa-specific curve used. |
| LGD | Loss Given Default | The share of exposure lost if a borrower defaults, after recoveries; climate repricing raises it. |
| LTV | Loan-to-Value | Loan divided by collateral value at origination. |
| NBFI | Non-Bank Financial Institution | Covered by the Directive from 2027. |
| NbS | Nature-based Solutions | Green infrastructure (SuDS, green roofs) used both as hazards mitigants and adaptation credits. |
| NGFS | Network for Greening the Financial System | The central-bank network whose climate scenarios supervisors mandate; offered as a scenario family. |
| ORASS | Online Regulatory & Analytical Surveillance Software | BoG's supervisory data-submission portal (Regnology/Vizor); the route a future climate return would travel. |
| PCAF | Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials | Its 1–5 data-quality scale is reused to flag each asset's confidence (a screen is never better than 3). |
| PD | Probability of Default | The chance a borrower defaults in a period; rises with negative equity and uninsured damage. |
| PFR | Property Flood Resilience | Resistant materials, raised sockets, tanked walls — cuts damage given a flood enters. |
| RCP | Representative Concentration Pathway | The earlier IPCC emissions scenarios; SSPs are the AR6 successors (noted for cross-reference). |
| Risk profile | Per-asset materiality profile | A tag (coastal / floodplain / farmland / urban) that adapts the six-hazard weighting so an asset's dominant threat leads its score; a coastal or floodplain designation also floors its lead peril at High. Recalibratable, and untagged assets are unchanged. |
| Rx1day | Maximum 1-day rainfall | An extreme-rainfall index used to project flood/riparian hazards forward (Clausius-Clapeyron ~7%/°C). |
| SAR | Synthetic-Aperture Radar | The all-weather, day-and-night radar imaging (Sentinel-1) behind the observed-flood overlay; standing open water reads as a smooth, low-return surface. |
| SBFN | Sustainable Banking & Finance Network | The IFC network that helped build Ghana's Sustainable Banking Principles. |
| SBP | Sustainable Banking Principles (Ghana) | Ghana's 2019 banking-sustainability principles, adopted by all banks; the Directive builds on them. |
| SDI | Specialised Deposit-taking Institution | Covered by the Directive from 2027. |
| Sentinel-1 | Copernicus Sentinel-1 (C-band SAR) | European radar satellite that images through cloud, day or night. The tool uses its backscatter change (UN-SPIDER method) to detect where a parcel was actually flooded — observed reality, distinct from modelled susceptibility. |
| SLR | Sea-Level Rise | The coastal-hazard driver, projected in cm under each scenario. |
| SREP | Supervisory Review & Evaluation Process | The supervisory assessment into which climate stress results can feed. |
| SSP | Shared Socioeconomic Pathway | The IPCC AR6 scenario families (SSP1-2.6 / SSP2-4.5 / SSP5-8.5) the tool projects under. |
| Stressed LTV | Climate-stressed Loan-to-Value | LTV recomputed after the climate collateral repricing haircut; ≥100% means the loan is under-collateralised. |
| SuDS | Sustainable Drainage Systems | Culverts, soakaways, swales; the core pluvial-flood adaptation. |
| TCFD | Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures | The disclosure framework folded into IFRS S2. |
| UN-SPIDER | UN Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management | Publishes the standard Sentinel-1 flood change-detection recipe the observed-flood layer follows. |
| WBGT | Wet-Bulb Globe Temperature | A heat-stress index underlying the heat hazard. |