Dr. James M. Thornton

Mountain Hydrogeology ｜ Catastrophe Risk ｜ Climate Analytics



Topical Editor, Earth System Science Data ｜ Fellow, Royal Geographical Society

James Thornton

I am a multidisciplinary environmental scientist with activities in the following areas:

      
  • Simulation of complex mountain hydrological systems using integrated, physics-based surface-subsurface flow models
      
  • Quantification of natural catastrophe hazard & risk for (re)insurance applications
      
  • Climate change analytics for the real estate sector
      
  • Environmental monitoring, data curation, analysis, and mapping
      
  • Research network coordination, science communication, and science–policy dialogue

Publications

  • *A 3D geological model of a structurally complex Alpine region as a basis for interdisciplinary research

  • *Efficient multi-objective calibration and uncertainty analysis of distributed snow simulations in rugged alpine terrain

  • *Simulating fully-integrated hydrological dynamics in complex Alpine headwaters: potential and challenges

  • *Toward a definition of Essential Mountain Climate Variables

  • *Coverage of in situ climatological observations in the world's mountains

  • *Human populations in the world’s mountains: Spatio-temporal patterns and potential controls

  • Climate changes and their elevational patterns in the mountains of the world

  • *†Mountain streamflow threatened by irreversible simulated groundwater declines

  • Cryosphere–groundwater connectivity is a missing link in the mountain water cycle

  • Toward a set of Essential Biodiversity Variables for assessing change in mountains globally



    • * denotes first author. † denotes invited "News & Views" article.

    In addition, my PhD thesis is available here.



Professional Experience & Education

PartnerRe
2025 – Present

Researcher – Flood Risk

SwissClimmo
2025 – Present

Founder

MRI
2020 – 2025

Senior Research Scientist & Coordinator, GEO Mountains

CHYN
2016 – 2020

PhD Candidate, Centre for Hydrogeology & Geothermics


Prix Adrien Gébhard-Séverine for an excellent doctoral thesis in hydrogeology

JBA
2012 – 2016

Catastrophe Model Developer & Risk Analyst [full-time]

Durham
2014 – 2016

Master of Science (by Research), Department of Geography [part-time]

Bristol
2009 – 2012

Bachelor of Science (First Class Honours), School of Geographical Sciences


The Haggett Prize for best performance in final undergraduate examinations

Professional Contributions

Selected Presentations

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2024: The Unified High Elevation Observation Platform (UHOP): A proposed protocol for monitoring environmental changes over elevation gradients, AGU Fall Meeting 2024, December 2024, Washington D.C, USA (poster)
2023: Quantifying in situ climatological data coverage and human population dynamics across the mountains of Africa, World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Open Science Conference 2023, Kigali, Rwanda
2023: A global, cross-disciplinary inventory of mountain monitoring infrastructure, EGU 2023, Vienna, Austria (poster)
2022: Quantifying in situ climatological data coverage and human population dynamics across High Mountain Asia, Cryosphere and Related Hazards in High Mountain Asia in a Changing Climate Conference, Almaty, Kazakhstan
2022: Coverage of in situ climatological observations in the world's mountains, 2nd GCOS Climate Observation Conference, Darmstadt, Germany
2022: Human populations in the world's mountains: patterns and potential controls, World Biodiversity Forum, Davos, Switzerland
2021: Integrated mountain science: Identifying monitoring priorities and improving discoverability and accessibility of in situ data, COP26 Geneva Cryosphere Hub, Geneva, Switzerland
2021: Toward a definition of Essential Mountain Climate Variables, MRI 20th Anniversary Lecture Series, Bern, Switzerland
2020: Fully-integrated surface-subsurface hydrological modelling in steep, geologically complex, snow-dominated Alpine terrain, Swiss Geosciences Meeting 2020, Zurich, Switzerland
2020: Efficient multi-objective calibration and uncertainty analysis of distributed snow simulations in rugged alpine terrain, SnowHydro 2020, Bolzano, Italy
2016: Advancing the science of flood modelling: JBA's new multi-peril probabilistic flood model of the UK, UK Flood: State of the Nation, London, UK
2015: Estimating hypothetical present-day insured losses for past intense hurricanes in the French Antilles, EGU 2015, Vienna, Austria (poster)
2013: Predicting extreme wind speeds on a tropical island for multi-peril catastrophe modelling, EGU 2013, Vienna, Austria

Service & Distinctions

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2025: European Research Council Starting Grant 2025 (ERC StG 2025) proposal “Combining integrated models, Earth Observation, and machine learning for improving hydrogeological understanding across the world’s mountains” (IMPEND) graded “A” (“fully meets the ERC's excellence criterion and is recommended for funding if sufficient funds are available”) [currently on reserve list]
2024: Local Scientific Organising Committee Member, World Groundwater Congress IAH2024, Davos, Switzerland [Recording: “Mountain Cryosphere & Groundwater” Plenary Session]
2023: Future Earth Early Career Fellowship, which supports outstanding early-career scholars to pursue research related to sustainable development
2022: Water Resources Research Editors' Choice Award for a paper considered by the Editors of WRR, the premier hydrology journal, to be in the top ~1% of all published in the journal that year, indicating extremely high quality and significance
2022: Session Convenor, International Mountain Conference (IMC) 2022, Innsbruck, Austria
Since 2022: Topical Editor, Earth System Science Data
Since 2021: Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS)
2021: Contributing Author, Cross-Chapter Paper “Mountains”, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (WGII, AR6)
2020: Prix Adrien Gébhard-Séverine for an excellent doctoral thesis in hydrogeology, Faculty of Science, University of Neuchâtel
Since 2016: Regular reviewer for several leading journals including Water Resources Research, Nature Water, Journal of Hydrology, One Earth, Groundwater & Scientific Data
2012: The Haggett Prize for best performance in final undergraduate examinations, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol
2011: Level 5 Award in Management and Leadership (Chartered Management Institute, UK)

Policy & Outreach

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2025: GEO Mountains In Situ Inventory v3
2025: The United Nations World Water Development Report 2025 – Mountains and glaciers: water towers (Contributor)
2025: Adapting to the inevitable: How data can drive resilience in mountain regions
2025: Los Nevados No Longer?
2024: Proposal for the Unified High Elevation Observing Platform (UHOP), v1.0
2024: Adaptation at Altitude – Taking Action in the Mountains
2023–2024: Lead organiser & facilitator of five major in-person workshops under GEO Mountains' Interdisciplinary Monitoring, Data & Capacity Sharing series (Andes, Caucasus, Central Asia, East Africa & Hindu Kush Himalaya)
2023: Mountains in silent thaw: Losses and damages from the disappearing "frozen heartbeat" of Earth
2023: The Mountains Uncovered Series
2022: Mountain Observations Policy Brief
2022: Estimating the world's mountain populations
2022: Mountain case study boosts understanding of in situ monitoring network coverage
2021: Tackling "the Ultimate Challenge" in Greater Depth

Selected Projects

  • IntergrAlp



    • GEO Mountains



      • Adaptation at Altitude



Contact

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any questions, or would like to discuss possible collaboration or consultancy.



jt9662 [at] my.bristol.ac.uk