SESSIONS

Research project; January 2020 NSW Bushfires study into building vulnerability

Risk Frontiers deployed a team to the NSW South Coast region in late January, 2020 to undertake damage surveys following the Black Summer bushfires. This research was supported by the Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC (BNHCRC) now Natural Hazards Research Australia (NHRA).
This session will review the lead-up to the 2019/202 bushfire season by briefly examining the climatological setup before reviewing the specifics of the Drake, Rappville and South Coast bushfire events. Then we’ll discuss the damage in the Northern NSW and NSW South Coast bushfire of 2019/20 examining the spatial distribution of lost buildings, their relationship to bushland and their construction age and materials before finishing with some historical context examining the normalised losses from this and other bushfire events.
PRESENTER(S)
James O'Brien

Dr. James O'Brien

Chief Geospatial Scientist, Risk Frontiers

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 development and delivery of a range of our model and data products 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 post event damage assessments, 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.