James O’Brien

Chief Geospatial Scientist

James is Risk Frontiers’ Chief Geospatial Scientist developing solutions and providing thought leadership for the integration of physical, social science and climate change factors in modelling risk, exposure, vulnerability and resilience for people, property and infrastructure using geographical information science.

He manages the National Flood Information Database, our Risk Rating database and leads the development of our ARPC blast loss model (link – https://www.transparency.gov.au/annual-reports/australian-reinsurance-pool-corporation/reporting-year/2018-2019-16) drawing on over 20 years of experience applying GIS and spatial analysis to solving geographical problems in the US, UK, Europe, Asia and Australia. James has worked for a range of clients across government, insurance and infrastructure providers on large scale hazard modelling, hydrological modelling, physical and social vulnerability indices, spatial analysis developing web mapping platforms and mapping human and infrastructure exposure and small scale site-focused assessments.

James also has extensive experience designing and conducting field surveys, interviews, focus groups and managing teams of data collectors. He obtained his PhD in Geography at The Pennsylvania State University specialising in GIS and visualisation.