InstaMaps
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Facts and risk

Crime, flood or natural-hazard risk for each place

get_area_risk

One risk fact per place: recorded crime nearby (England and Wales) with the commonest types, flood zone (England, US), or FEMA natural-hazard rating (US).

Read-onlySheets, files and runs by referenceBackground jobs for big lists

Use it when

  • ✓ Underwriting or site screening
  • ✓ "How much vehicle crime is around each of our depots?"
  • ✓ Comparing locations on one risk

Not for

Coverage: Crime: England and Wales (police.uk, latest month). Flood: England and US. Hazard: US counties.

Measured

  • Flood answers come from the same checked flood maps as get_location_facts (138/140 vs FEMA, 70/70 vs the Environment Agency).

Sources

  • police.uk street-level crime (England and Wales) (the month in the answer)
  • Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning: flood zones (England, July 2026) (2026-10-07)
  • FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer: flood zones (US) (2026-10-07)
  • FEMA National Risk Index (2026-10-07)
  • InstaMaps address index (OpenStreetMap, OpenAddresses) and postcodes.io (2026-10-08)

Inputs

metric

string · required

— One of: crime · flood · hazard

kind

string

—

records

array · up to 250

{id, address} or {id, lat, lng}. Send your own ids to merge results back.

addresses

array · up to 250

Or plain addresses/postcodes, numbered from 1.

background

boolean

With source: run as a background job and answer at once with job_id (automatic past 200 rows). Check with get_job; write_to_sheet with the job_id puts the results in the sheet as they finish.

source

object

Instead of typing rows: { sheet: "<Google Sheets link>", tab?: "Sites" } (shared with the InstaMaps service account, or viewable by anyone with the link), { file: "<Drive link to a CSV or Excel file>" }, or { run: "<run_id from an earlier answer>" }. Columns are found by their headers (id, name, address or its parts, lat/lng); name them if they aren't obvious (id_column, address_column, lat_column, lng_column; from_column and to_column for road distances). Rows with coordinates are used as they are.
The full description, as the server gives it to an agent

One risk fact for each of up to 250 addresses or points. crime: recorded crimes within about 250 m in the latest month (police.uk; England and Wales; kind narrows it: vehicle, burglary, violent, theft, shoplifting, robbery, anti-social, drugs, criminal damage, bike). flood: the flood zone with high/medium/low (Environment Agency for England, FEMA for the US). hazard: FEMA National Risk Index rating for the county (US; kind: overall, flood, hurricane, wildfire, tornado, earthquake, heat…). Rows outside a source's coverage say so rather than guess.

A real answer

Captured from the live server on 2026-10-13, trimmed to the first rows.

Request

{
  "metric": "flood",
  "addresses": [
    "York YO1 7HH",
    "10 Downing Street, London SW1A 2AA"
  ]
}

The answer's first line

flood zone: 2 of 2 answered · 1 of 2 high confidence (1 medium, 0 low). Caveats: street or named place (1 row).

The answer (trimmed)

{
  "confidence": {
    "summary": "1 of 2 high confidence (1 medium, 0 low). Caveats: street or named place (1 row).",
    "levels": {
      "high": 1,
      "medium": 1,
      "low": 0
    },
    "caveats": [
      {
        "basis": "named_place",
        "level": "medium",
        "rows": 1,
        "ids": [
          "1"
        ],
        "meaning": "Placed on a street or a named place; no house number was given, so it is not a doorstep point.",
        "next": "Fine for area questions. For doorstep precision, send a house number or coordinates."
      }
    ]
  },
  "metric": "flood",
  "label": "flood zone",
  "summary": {
    "records": 2,
    "placed": 2,
    "answered": 2
  },
  "records": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "record_key": "rk1_d1ee5931d1454ef356c3",
      "ok": true,
      "value": "Zone 1",
      "risk": "low",
      "source": "EA",
      "confidence": {
        "level": "medium",
        "score": 0.7,
        "basis": "named_place"
      }
    },
    {
      "id": "2",
      "record_key": "rk1_e9ec1ea25045e3a5e393",
      "ok": true,
      "value": "Zone 3",
      "risk": "high",
      "source": "EA",
      "confidence": {
        "level": "high",
        "score": 0.95,
        "basis": "exact_building"
      }
    }
  ],
  "run": {
    "tool": "get_area_risk",
    "at": "2026-10-13T15:59:33.038Z",
    "rows": 2,
    "placed": 2,
    "not_placed": 0,
    "answered": 2,
    "sources": [
      {
        "name": "Environment Agency Flood Map for Planning: flood zones (England, July 2026)",
        "as_of": "2026-10-07"
      },
      {
        "name": "FEMA National Flood Hazard Layer: flood zones (US)",
        "as_of": "2026-10-07"
      },
      {
        "name": "InstaMaps address index (OpenStreetMap, OpenAddresses) and postcodes.io",
        "as_of": "2026-10-08"
      }
    ],
    "run_id": "run_415808917ab6f692",
    "confidence": {
      "high": 1,
      "medium": 1,
      "low": 0
    }
  }
}

Use it in Claude

Add the connector https://get-instamaps.com/mcp and ask in plain words. 5,000 tool calls a day per person, reset at midnight UTC; a call counts once however many rows it carries; a sheet by reference is one call; checking a job is free.

How to add it →