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Olivia Jensen

Olivia Jensen

Deputy Director and Lead Scientist (Environment and Climate), PhD (Development Economics), London School of Economics

lrfonjb@nus.edu.sg
Risk Perception Water Risk Net Zero Coastal Adaptation

Dr Olivia Jensen is a social scientist specialising in water and environmental risks. She joined IPUR in 2018 as Lead Scientist overseeing the Institute’s Environment and Climate research pillar and became Deputy Director in 2023. Before joining IPUR, she was based at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (NUS).

Olivia’s work is concerned with individuals’ perceptions and communication of environmental risks and the design of policy interventions to strengthen resilience. Her current projects include: adaptative coastal planning in Singapore under a grant from PUB, the national water and coastal protection agency; and the development of an evaluation framework for creative, two-way risk communications. She has published in the Journal of Risk Research, Risk Analysis, Safety Science, the International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction and other leading journals.

She works with governments and international organisations on policy-relevant research. Olivia collaborated with the World Bank on urban water security in Indonesia and water sector financing, with the Asian Development Bank on public perceptions of climate change mitigation policies, with ASEAN on the Disaster Risk Communication Framework and with Singapore’s Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment on public attitudes towards the national Net Zero target.

Olivia holds a PhD and MSc in International Development from the London School of Economics and an MA and BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University. She is a Board Member of the Society for Risk Analysis and a founding member of the Global Risk Communication Network.

published papers

  1. Jensen, O., Lee, L., Lo, C. J., & Thi, T. T. (2025). Disaster risk perception and communication: A behavioral science perspective. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Natural Hazard Science. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389407.013.515
  2. Lo, C. J., Jensen, O., & Lee, L. (2025). Risk targets: To what extent does ‘who’ is at risk influence risk perception? Journal of Risk Research, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2024.2447246
  3. Trinh, T. T., & Jensen, O. (2025). Finding out about disaster risk: Global evidence on who seeks information, which sources they use, and whether it makes them better prepared. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 105553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2025.105553
  4. Jensen, O., & Ménard, C. (2024). Understanding the roles of meso-institutions: A comparative approach to urban water provision in seven Asian cities. Journal of Institutional Economics, 20. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1744137424000250
  5. Sioné, L. S. L., Templeton, M. R., Onof, C., Jensen, O., Bressan, S., & Tripathi, S. (2022). Can a citizen-science approach to collecting data assist the management of intermittent water supply in low-income and data-scarce settings? Waterlines, 41(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3362/1756-3488.22-00065
  6. Mukherjee, M., & Jensen, O. (2022). Open water: Impacts of retail competition on service performance and water-use efficiency in England. Utilities Policy, 79, 101429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2022.101429
  7. Jensen, O. (2022). Climate risk perceptions and policy ambition. International Journal of Public Policy, 16(2/3/4), 151. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpp.2022.124777
  8. Lan, T., Goh, Y. M., Jensen, O., & Asmone, A. S. (2022). The impact of climate change on workplace safety and health hazard in facilities management: An in-depth review. Safety Science, 151, 105745. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105745
  9. Wong, C. M. L., & Jensen, O. (2020). The paradox of trust: Perceived risk and public compliance during the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. Journal of Risk Research, 23(7–8), 1021–1030. https://doi.org/10.1080/13669877.2020.1756386
  10. Jensen, O., & Khalis, A. (2020). Urban water systems: Development of micro-level indicators to support integrated policy. PLoS ONE, 15(2), e0228295. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0228295
  11. Jensen, O., & Ong, C. (2020). Collaborative action for community resilience to climate risks: Opportunities and barriers. Sustainability, 12(8), 3413. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083413
  12. Mukherjee, M., & Jensen, O. (2019). Making water reuse safe: A comparative analysis of the development of regulation and technology uptake in the US and Australia. Safety Science, 121, 5–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.08.039
  13. Jensen, O., & Nair, S. (2019). Integrated urban water management and water security: A comparison of Singapore and Hong Kong. Water, 11(4), 785. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11040785
  14. Jensen, O., & Chindarkar, N. (2018). Sustaining reforms in water service delivery: The role of service quality, salience, trust and financial viability. Water Resources Management, 33(3), 975–992. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-018-2154-7

ongoing projects

  1. Adaptive Coastal Protection Planning (2025-2028) This $1.5m 3-year project, funded by Singapore’s national water and coastal protection agency, PUB, will develop rigorous methods for the assessment of public risk attitudes and estimates of indirect costs and benefits of coastal protection to develop an integrated decision matrix for coastal protection planning for Singapore with potential for implementation by coastal cities around the world.Singapore, like other coastal cities, faces increasing risks from flooding due to sea level rise. Decision-makers face the challenge of making long-term investments under high uncertainty about climate change and social and economic development trajectories. Both traditional ‘grey’ coastal protection infrastructure and ‘green-grey’ measures which incorporate nature-based elements are associated with a wide range of indirect costs and benefits. Understanding how much risk the public is willing to accept and how the public views the trade-offs between financial costs, flood risk reduction and indirect costs and benefits is essential to making feasible and sustainable coastal protection plans.As Lead Principal Investigator, Olivia Jensen is coordinating an interdisciplinary team of researchers of social scientists, engineers, architects and urban planners from the National University of Singapore and industry collaborator Haskoning to deliver the project.
  2. Creative risk communications: Measuring the Impact of Music on Tsunami Preparedness (2025-2026) This joint project with Pacifico Applied Risk Communications combines social science, risk communication, and cultural collaboration. It evaluates innovative methods for public risk understanding and community preparedness, evaluating the use of music as an intervention to raise awareness and increase protective action related to coastal risks with a specific application to tsunami preparedness in Timor-Leste. Results will inform global early warning efforts under the “Early Warnings for All” initiative and provide a model for integrating culture into disaster preparedness in Timor Leste and among coastal communities worldwide.
  3. Community resilience to environmental risk  The resilience of a community – its ability to respond and recover from setbacks and disasters – is influenced by its inherent characteristics that allow the system to absorb impacts and cope with an event, and by the presence of adaptive processes after the event which facilitate the ability of the social system to re-organize, change, and learn in response to a difficult or damaging event. This project seeks to co-develop indicators of community resilience and evaluate an intervention of community-led design to manage flood risk and increase community resilience in Singapore.
  4. Mapping water risk in Greater Jakarta This study analyses water risks in the Greater Jakarta mega-city region through a collaborative research methodology. The Jakarta region faces high water-related risks from multiple sources: low access to piped water and sanitation, riverine, surface and coastal flooding, land subsidence and groundwater depletion. The area also provides an illustrative case of multi-level and multi-party governance combining horizontal fragmentation, decentralization and extensive private sector participation. Data collection, analysis and development of policy recommendations was conducted collaboratively with representatives of national and local governments to ensure the policy relevance of the study and support implementation. The study demonstrated the need to study linkages between water risks and across administrative boundaries. Two follow-up projects are planned on (1) the operationalisation of policy recommendations through Integrated Urban Water Management actions and (2) a study of public risk perceptions of water risks and identification of gaps between public and expert risk assessment.
  5. “Using citizen science to fill data gaps in urban water risk assessment” Data gaps hamper the assessment of household level water risks related to intermittent and poor quality water supplies. Without such an assessment, government agencies lack incentives to improve services and to be able to channel scarce human and financial resources effectively to reduce water-related risks. Mobile connectivity creates an opportunity for citizens to be directly involved in collecting data. However, there are concerns over validity and reliability of data collected through ‘citizen science.’ This project sought to demonstrate the value of citizen involvement in water quality data collection in Kathmandu, Nepal, where residents face severe risks in water quality and availability.
  6. “Systematic assessment of climate change risk perceptions, stakeholder analysis and risk communication interventions in relation to drought, flash flood and coastal flood risks” This study adopts a systematic approach to the study of public perceptions of sea level rise, drought and flood and other climate-related risks and related interventions in Singapore to support the design of communications interventions to close the gap between the risk perceptions of experts and lay people. The next phase of this study will test the impact of communications interventions on understanding of risks and motivation to take appropriate protective actions among members of the public.
  7. “Climate change impacts on workplace safety and health in the facilities management sector” This study conducted with NUS School of Design and Environment involves a systematic assessment of climate change impacts on workplace safety and health (WSH) risks in the built environment industry. This industry faces a comparatively high level of WSH risks but stakeholders in SE Asia generally have low awareness of the potential impacts of climate change on the spectrum and level of risk. The study develops a method for climate risk identification and assessment and applies the method to facilities management work in Singapore, with a view to broadening the application to the built environment sector as a whole and to other locations, in particular tropical cities.
  8. “Research on Risk Perception Fundamentals” Since the seminal work by Paul Slovic and his colleagues more than 30 years ago (Slovic 1987; Slovic et al. 1981, 1985), how people perceive risk and what they consider as risk objects may have changed substantially, given the evolving socio-political, economic, cultural, and environmental landscape in Asia. In this research project, the project aim to acquire a revised understanding of the factors and dimensions that have become essential to how people—both the public and experts—perceive risk in Asia today.
  9. "AI for social good: pregnancy monitoring" In collaboration with Bangaldesh Aspire to Innovate (a2i) Programme of the ICT Division and Cabinet Division of Bangladesh, IPUR will be conducting AI related research to support the Bangladeshi Government in the development of policies promoting and enabling AI policy frameworks and building AI capabilities for social good in pregnancy monitoring. Specifically, IPUR will be investigating the challenges in perceptions and receptions of incorporating AI into continuous pregnancy monitoring systems and related tech challenges.
  10. "Environmental Champions Project" This project aims to identify the factors which motivate individuals to promote environmental change within their communities and to define pathways to amplify the efforts of these individuals. The project focuses on community champions, people who lead and motivate others to take positive environmental action and act as intermediaries between their community members and government agencies, businesses and other organisations.
  11. "Coastal Flooding" This project aims to build resilience to coastal flooding by developing a comprehensive understanding of public perceptions and the factors influencing protective actions at both the individual and policy levels.It addresses gaps in existing research through a comparative multi-country study in high-risk locations with varying coastal protection infrastructure—Singapore, Japan, the Philippines, and Vietnam. Coastal cities face growing flood risks, yet precautionary measures remain limited. This study will inform effective strategies for enhancing community preparedness and policy support, contributing to better risk management in diverse urban settings. READ MORE
  12. "Getting to Net Zero" This project was driven by a collaborative study by IPUR, the Lee Kuan Yew Centre for Innovative Cities (LKYCIC) at SUTD, and the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment. The study sought to understand what Singaporeans think about the 2050 Net Zero target and the actions that could be taken to move towards the target. The study also wanted to understand the public’s knowledge and perceptions of Net Zero.Background research: Systematic literature review on public support for Net ZeroThis study conducts a systematic literature review of 168 scientific papers published since 2010 to examine the drivers of public support for Net Zero policies worldwide. Understanding influencing factors of policy support is essential for fostering societal transformation and behavioural change needed to effectively mitigate climate change risks over the next decade.
  13. "Risk-Know-How" The Risk Know-How Project is led by Sense About Science in collaboration with IPUR and supported by LRF. Risk Know-How (RKH) helps communities navigate risk information and supports community risk practitioners by providing useful resources and case studies, and the opportunity to request tailored help. READ MORE
  14. "Risk Barometer" The IPUR Singapore Risk Barometer Report is a flagship initiative to gain deeper insight into the risks that Singaporeans feel are the greatest concerns in their daily lives. It spotlights the needs, expectations and demands of society and serves as an annual scorecard on the management of these risks. The report aims to provide valuable information to government, companies and the media regarding the public’s perceptions of these issues and their expectations about whether sufficient action is being taken to address them.
  15. "Individual Climate Action" This project focuses on inspiring and empowering individuals to take meaningful climate action in their daily lives by raising awareness, offering practical solutions, and building a community of environmentally-conscious citizens who are committed to reducing their carbon footprint and promoting sustainability.
  16. "IPUR Seed Grant Understanding Public Perception of Crowd Risk and Messaging Effectiveness" This project between IPUR and Johns Hopkins Critical Event Preparedness and Response (CEPAR) will highlight understanding of public perception and effective communication strategies to mitigate crowd-related risks. Specific objectives are to: 1) explore public perception of crowd-related risks and 2) evaluate effectiveness of current messaging strategies in influencing public behavior during crowd events.
  17. "[IPUR Seed Grant] Gamifying and carbon scoring urban mobility for a greener Singapore: A randomized control trial" By conducting a Randomized Control Trial with 300 students, this project is the first step to test the hypothesis that a mix of pro-environmental messaging, carbon scoring, and gamification-based rewards encourages public transit.
  18. "World Risk Poll and disaster risk information" Employing the 2021 World Risk Poll dataset, this study examines disaster risk information from the perspective of the individual. It investigates whether, and through which channels, members of the public seek information about natural hazards. This ‘demand-side’ approach to disaster risk communication complements the ‘supply-side’ tracking of early warning systems, which governments undertake under the Sendai Monitoring Framework.
  19. "Risk networks and profiles of segments of media-reported risks in Singapore" Leveraging on the Risk Barometer data, this study delves into the public perceptions of media-reported risks in Singapore. We explore the networks of Singapore public’s concerns regarding various major media-reported risks. We also aim to identify key subgroups of populations in terms of their specific patterns in responding to media-reported risks. Identifying those distinct profiles will inform tailored communication strategies that cater to the unique needs of each group.
     

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