GCRI · Cities and Built Environment
Cities and Built Environment
Urban development, buildings, mobility, infrastructure, housing and human-scale resilience. Cities and Built Environment is an established platform of The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation.
- STEM methods
- 9
- Canonical methods this field applies
- Topics
- 8
- Subject pages in the field
- Counterparts
- 5
- Platforms in shared fields across the network
- Report series
- 2
- Reports series it contributes to
The areas of cities and built environment this platform takes on.
Cities and Built Environment studies how cities grow, house people, move them, keep them cool and supplied, and govern the risks that concentrate where people and assets do. Its pages set out the evidence on land and growth, housing, buildings and heat, mobility, informal settlements, utilities, green and blue infrastructure and the work of municipal government, with every value labelled by its evidence and every limit stated. It prepares evidence; city governments, residents and national authorities decide.
Urban growth and land
Where cities expand, how densely, on what land and with what exposure to hazards.
Housing and affordability
The supply, cost, quality and security of housing, and who is left without adequate shelter.
Buildings and heat
How buildings and urban form trap or shed heat, and what that means for health and energy.
Transport and mobility
How people reach work, school and services, by which modes, and with what safety and emissions.
Informal settlements
Neighbourhoods built outside formal planning, their residents’ rights and their exposure to hazards.
Urban utilities
Water, sanitation, drainage, waste and energy services at city scale, and who is not reached.
Green and blue infrastructure
Parks, trees, wetlands and waterways that cool, absorb water and support wellbeing.
Municipal governance
The powers, finances and data that city governments need to plan and manage urban risk.
Asset register with hazard overlay.
The screen a team would use to follow this field: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Asset register with hazard overlay
Riverside ward · Flood 1-in-100 overlay
Hazard overlay
flood scenario on asset register
RiverFlood extentExposed asset
Exposed assets
| H-01 | Clinic | 0.7 |
| S-07 | School | 0.4 |
| E-03 | Substation | 0.8 |
| W-02 | Pump station | 0.8 |
Adaptation options
| Raise substation E-03 | 1 | Medium | Service continuity | Design |
| Retention park upstream | 12 | High | Heat, recreation | Feasibility |
| Flood-proof clinic H-01 | 1 | Low | Health access | Funded |
The questions this field works on.
Urban growth and land
Settlement expansion and land use.
TopicHousing and affordability
Housing systems and climate exposure.
TopicBuildings and heat
Building performance and urban heat.
TopicTransport and mobility
Urban journeys, transit and infrastructure.
TopicInformal settlements
Service access, exposure and inclusion.
TopicUrban utilities
Water, waste, electricity and communications.
TopicGreen blue infrastructure
Nature-based urban interventions.
TopicMunicipal governance interface
Policy questions and planning authority.
A cascade through interdependent networks.
A hazard footprint takes out co-located assets in every layer; fragmentation, dependency between layers and overload of the survivors then spread the failure. The 3D view separates the layers by depth. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows India; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Controls
- Assets per layer
- 18
- Hazard footprint
- 8% of area
- Assets that depend on another layer
- 60%
- Spare capacity (tolerance)
- 30%
Readouts
- Assets hit by the hazard
- 7%
- Assets still working
- 35%
- Amplification of the initial damage
- 8.8 times
- Steps to settle
- 4
Numbers, methods and sources
| Step | Transport working (%) | Power working (%) | Telecoms working (%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 94 | 94 | 89 |
| 1 | 83 | 72 | 78 |
| 2 | 50 | 17 | 78 |
| 3 | 33 | 17 | 61 |
| 4 | 33 | 17 | 56 |
Methods
- Interdependent networks Buldyrev and others (2010), Catastrophic cascade of failures in interdependent networks, Nature 464
- Overload cascades Motter and Lai (2002), Physical Review E 66
- Betweenness load Brandes (2001), Journal of Mathematical Sociology 25
- Multilayer networks Kivela and others (2014), Journal of Complex Networks 2
- Infrastructure interdependencies Rinaldi, Peerenboom and Kelly (2001), IEEE Control Systems 21(6)
- Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
- One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley
Data
The model runs on the teaching values set by the controls. To calibrate it for a place, read it against these admitted layers and series, which this page’s map can draw:
- Major roads Natural Earth
- Railways Natural Earth
- Seaports Natural Earth
- Airports Natural Earth
- Urban extents Natural Earth
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band) NASA/NOAA VIIRS (Suomi NPP) · register nasa.gibs.context-live-layers
- Natural events (NASA EONET) NASA EONET · register nasa.eonet.events
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Cities and Built Environment in Foundry
- Tested at Cities and Built Environment in Universe
- Codified in Cities and the Built Environment in Standards
- Published in Cities and Built Environment in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Infrastructure, Energy and Industry in Academy
What Cities and Built Environment does.
Urban resilience is the capacity of a city’s people, institutions, buildings and systems to cope with shocks and stresses and to adapt and recover. Cities and Built Environment covers urban growth and land, housing, buildings and heat, mobility, informal settlements, utilities, green and blue infrastructure and municipal governance. City governments, residents and national authorities decide.
Its community
Urban researchers; city staff; planners; architects; housing specialists.
Its methods
Urban GIS; vulnerability mapping; built-asset resilience; planning evidence.
Its outputs
Urban resilience profiles; built-environment briefs; city research case studies.
Model Cities and Built Environment as a system. Run the cascade.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Cities and the built environment: the hazards it names, the systems and sectors that carry the loss, the controls that dampen it and the data that observe it. Choose the components, pick an initiating hazard and step through the cascade. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every coupling weight is a stated assumption you can change. A teaching model, not a forecast, an assessment or a certification. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.
Hazards
- Ice-jam flood
- Earthquake
- Dam failure
- Aftershock sequence (set off downstream)
- Fault surface rupture (set off downstream)
- Soil liquefaction (set off downstream)
- Slope slide (set off downstream)
- Rockfall (set off downstream)
- Tsunami (set off downstream)
- Building collapse (set off downstream)
- Widespread power outage (set off downstream)
- Water supply failure (set off downstream)
- Mass displacement (set off downstream)
- Disaster and conflict debris (set off downstream)
- River flood (set off downstream)
- Flash flood (set off downstream)
- Turbidity current (set off downstream)
- Seismically and structurally vulnerable stock (set off downstream)
Systems and couplings
- Cities and the built environment
- Construction and real estate Coupling
- Water utilities and basins Coupling
- Public sector and government Coupling
- Energy utilities and grids Coupling
Controls
NS-0Constitution and principlesNS-3Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)NS-5Figure, map and visualisation standard (with the UI/UX kit)NS-9Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)NS-10Policies and clauses (machine-readable obligations: definition, binding, evaluation and enforcement)NS-11Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)NRS-X5Cities and built environment riskNRS-H91Hazard family: Urban and building-stock stress (NHS-1 infra.urban)NRS-H113Hazard family: Financial-system fragility (NHS-1 soc.financial-system)NRS-K7Domain pack profile: Cities urban (DOMAIN-007)NRS-H31Hazard family: Persistent and bioaccumulative substances (NHS-1 poll.persistent)NRS-H34Hazard family: Waste and residue failures (NHS-1 poll.waste)
Observation
- Global Human Settlement Layer (listed for reference)
- WorldPop gridded population (listed for reference)
- Overture Maps buildings theme (listed for reference)
- OpenStreetMap (listed for reference)
- World Development Indicators (listed for reference)
- Direct economic loss in relation to global GDP, damage to critical infrastructure and number of disruptions to basic services, attributed to disasters
- Proportion of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national strategies
- Proportion of urban population living in slums, informal settlements or inadequate housing
- Percentage of local governments that adopt and implement local disaster risk reduction strategies in line with national strategies
Example geography
- India: 65 hexagonal cells
- Surface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar), NASA GIBS
- Rain rate, last half hour (IMERG), NASA GIBS
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
- Surface soil moisture (SMAP), NASA GIBS
What Cities and Built Environment studies, and who decides in cities.
Cities and Built Environment, studies how cities grow, house people, keep them cool and supplied, and govern the risks that concentrate in them. City governments, residents and national authorities decide on land, housing and services; the platform prepares evidence and methods.
City maps and heat layers shown here are illustrations unless marked as released, and informal settlements are described with their residents, never only about them.
Coupled risk, applied response.
The sectors urban flood touches and how strongly they depend on each other: what a study has to observe and model together.
Choose a context
Sectors · Urban floodStress
Pillars · Urban floodKPI
In this contextDependence or handoff, heavier is strongerOutside this context
Programme yearAll phases
Context
Urban flood
Flooded streets take out substations, pumping stations and clinic access together; drinking water fails when power does.
W · E · I · F · H · B
Risk
- Sectors
- 4 of 6
- Relations
- 6 of 15
- Coupling
- 0.46 share of total
Hover a corner, a line or a row to trace it across both sides.
Route
Applied to urban flood
L · F · U · S · R · A
Response
- Pillars
- 5 of 6
- Handoffs
- 11 of 18
- Loops
- 8 closed
Expected value
- What is at stake
- $390Ba year at least, in infrastructure disruption costs to households and firms in low- and middle-income countriesWorld Bank, Lifelines, 2019
- Return on resilience
- 4 : 1benefit to costWorld Bank, Lifelines, 2019
- Avoided loss
- 30%less damage with 24 hours’ warning of a storm or heatwaveGlobal Commission on Adaptation, Adapt Now, 2019
Hover a pillar, a line or a row to read how it is applied.
A: a teaching cascade (shock 0.6, gain 0.35, four rounds) over teaching values for a typical city-region, not measurements. B: illustrative applications and the KPI each pillar answers for; values are published benchmarks, cited, not forecasts. Open events: NASA EONET, live.
Cities concentrate all five domains.
- WaterHow this field couples to itUrban floods, water supply and sanitation coverage shape health and livelihoods.
- EnergyHow this field couples to itCooling demand and grid stress peak in cities during heatwaves.
- FoodHow this field couples to itUrban food security depends on markets, prices and incomes more than on harvests.
- HealthHow this field couples to itHeat, air quality and crowding drive urban health risk.
- BiodiversityHow this field couples to itGreen and blue infrastructure cools cities and absorbs storm water.
How Cities and Built Environment is modelled, measured and tested.
The model, its assumptions, its data and its uncertainty, in the form a scientist or engineer would check. Structures follow published methods. The values drawn are illustrative, not findings.
System model
The couplings between the systems in Cities and Built Environment: signs of influence, a reinforcing and a balancing loop, and cross-links where stress jumps.
Model, equations and assumptions
The model structure used for Cities and Built Environment, the assumptions it makes and how each is tested.
Ri = f(Hi, Ei, Vi, Ci)hazard, exposure, vulnerability and coping capacityEAL = ∑k pk · Lkover events k with annual probability pkxt+1 = A xt + B ut + εtA carries the couplings, u the shock, ε the error| Assumption | Why it is made | How it is tested |
|---|---|---|
| Hazard and exposure are independent within an event | Keeps the loss integral tractable | Compare with a copula fit on joint records |
| Couplings are linear near the operating point | Lets shocks propagate through A | Perturb beyond the linear range and compare |
| Vulnerability curves transfer between places | Local curves are rarely available | Validate against observed losses where they exist |
- Inputs
- versioned datasets with provenance
- Outputs
- distributions, never single numbers
- Code
- released with the model card and tests
- Reproduction
- same data, code, environment and seed
Where urban evidence goes.
Urban analyses are designed for the Country Systems Risk and Resilience series and city-scale methods for the Methods and Technical series. Urban indicators would follow the ISO 37120 family and carry record identifiers under the proposed Nexus Standards.
- Cities can propose a resilience scorecard review.
- Residents can contribute local mapping through consent-aware routes.
- Researchers can share heat and flood studies with methods.
Urban signals in India.
Night lights, population density and daytime surface heat over India, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Urban signals, for this page
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2) (NASA LAADS DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LAADS DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite radiance, corrected for moonlight and atmosphere
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-12
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite night-time radiance for the date shown; lights are a proxy for electricity use and outages, not a measurement of supply or access.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Estimated
- Source
- Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University))
- Provider
- NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University)
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Vintage
- null; Census-based estimate, static (2020)
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Census-based estimate of people per square kilometre in 2020, shown as exposure context; not a count of people affected by any hazard.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (persistent cloud still leaves gaps)
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- 8-day; Satellite 8-day composite; persistent cloud still leaves gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-09-14
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite skin temperature of the ground over the 8 days ending on the date shown, a heat exposure indicator; not air temperature, heat index or a heat warning.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite image
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-14
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite image. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Modelled (latest year GIBS publishes)
- Source
- MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1) (NASA LP DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LP DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- yearly; Satellite classification; latest year GIBS publishes
- Newest at build
- 2024-01-01
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite land cover classes for the year shown, including croplands; a classification with known errors, not a farm register.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- OMI Aura (NASA GES DISC)
- Provider
- NASA GES DISC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite retrieval; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-10
- Resolution
- about 2 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite column of nitrogen dioxide in the lower atmosphere on the day shown, mostly from combustion; not a ground-level concentration or a health warning.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
Keyboard, with the map focused
Hold Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll to zoom
Latest available
NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
Loading the latest NASA imagery.
Drag to move. Ctrl or ⌘ and scroll, pinch or the buttons to zoom; hover for the values under the pointer; reset returns to the region.
Urban signals, framed on India.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date. They are indicators, not assessments of any place.
Data: NASA GIBS · ASTER GDEM · Blue Marble · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Natural Earth · NASA EONET · U.S. Geological Survey · NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERTSources and licences
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- VIIRS Black Marble night-time lights, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; distributed by the NASA Level-1 and Atmosphere Archive and Distribution System (LAADS DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), Columbia University. 2018. Gridded Population of the World, Version 4 (GPWv4): Population Density, Revision 11. NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC). Licensed under CC BY 4.0. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). doi:10.7927/H49C6VHW. CC BY 4.0
- VIIRS near-real-time products (flood, land surface temperature, snow cover, corrected reflectance), NASA LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS land products (vegetation indices, gross primary production, land cover), NASA LP DAAC and LANCE; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- OMI nitrogen dioxide (Aura) and OMPS aerosol index (Suomi NPP), NASA; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- ASTER GDEM is a product of METI and NASA (ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003, NASA LP DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). Cite as: NASA/METI/AIST/Japan Spacesystems and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team (2019). ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model V003. doi:10.5067/ASTER/ASTGTM.003. NASA open data
- Made with Natural Earth. Free vector and raster map data @ naturalearthdata.com. Public domain
- © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL), via NASA GIBS (coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names). Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- Context on the globe and flat map: coastlines, boundaries, roads and place names from NASA GIBS reference layers (OpenStreetMap data, ODbL, © OpenStreetMap contributors); Blue Marble imagery as an optional base; 3D terrain and the elevation read-out from the ASTER GDEM elevation colour index (5 m to 200 m classes, exaggerated for legibility). Boundaries are drawn as published and imply no position on any territory.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Live: U.S. Geological Survey Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Observed (EO): NASA JPL OPERA DIST-ALERT (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2026). We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- NASA GIBS: We acknowledge the use of imagery provided by services from NASA’s Global Imagery Browse Services (GIBS), part of NASA’s Earth Science Data and Information System (ESDIS).
- Air quality forecast, 5 days, PM2.5 (CAMS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2026.
- Past year, daily temperature and sunshine (NASA POWER): These data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program..
- Weather data by Open-Meteo.com (https://open-meteo.com/), licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
- Optional layers (16 sources in the layer list: live, forecast, observed and context) print their provider credit on the map and here when switched on; forecasts are model output and derived indices are estimates.
Layers and dates
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024
- Nitrogen dioxide, lower atmosphere column: OMI Aura, NASA GES DISC · 10 Oct 2026
Cities concentrate exposure and connect failures.
A city is a dense system of systems. Buildings depend on water, power, drainage and communications; people depend on transport to reach work, schools and clinics; and every service depends on others. Concentration brings efficiency and opportunity, and it also means that a single hazard can affect very large numbers of people and assets at once.
Urban risk is made, not only received. Where and how a city grows decides who lives on floodplains, steep slopes or reclaimed land. Sealed surfaces raise flood peaks; dark roofs and lost tree cover deepen urban heat; building codes, and whether they are enforced, decide how structures perform in earthquakes and storms. Informal settlements often occupy the most exposed land with the least access to services, while rising housing costs push people further from jobs and into poorer-quality buildings.
Failures cascade through dependencies. A heatwave raises electricity demand at the moment heat stresses the grid; an outage stops water pumping, traffic signals and cooling; flooded underground stations cut mobility across a whole region. Recovery is shaped by tenure, insurance, municipal capacity and social ties, so the same event can leave lasting inequality in its wake. Understanding the city as a connected whole is the precondition for planning that reduces harm.
Urban evidence for those who plan and build.
The platform is designed for urban researchers, city staff, planners, architects and housing specialists. Its methods are urban GIS, vulnerability mapping, built-asset resilience and planning evidence.
Urban resilience profiles
Structured descriptions of a city’s exposure, dependencies and capacities, with sources and uncertainty.
Built-environment briefs
Concise evidence on a design, planning or housing question for practitioners.
City research case studies
Documented examples of what worked, what did not and why.
GCRI does not regulate, certify, license or approve. Planning, building control and investment decisions remain with the competent authorities and owners.
Nine methods and five counterparts.
The platform draws on nine methods in the STEM Commons, including structural and earthquake engineering, urban and transport engineering, geospatial information systems and spatial statistics and geostatistics. How each applies to cities is set out on the STEM foundation of Cities and Built Environment.
Its counterparts look at the same places from other mandates, so that evidence produced here can inform governance and finance without being confused with either. At The Global Risks Forum (GRF), Disaster and Crisis Governance convenes the authorities that coordinate emergencies and recovery, and Information Integrity addresses public information in crises. At The Global Risks Alliance (GRA), Development Finance Nexus, Institutional Funds Nexus and Financial Cyber Resilience build shared industry understanding of urban investment and dependencies. Lifeline engineering itself is the subject of Critical Infrastructure at GCRI.
Built on named science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Every claim on Cities and Built Environment rests on methods with a canonical page in the STEM Commons, so readers can see what a finding depends on and where its limits lie.
How work moves in this field.
A question becomes evidence, a governed build, an organised community, a controlled test, a reviewed publication and, finally, a decision taken by the competent authority under its own rules.
- Question Universe National, regional or institutional priority. Question in Cities and Built Environment
- Evidence Foundry STEM foundation of the platform. Evidence in Cities and Built Environment
- Build Foundry Foundry. Build in Cities and Built Environment
- Organise Universe Nexus ecosystem. Organise in Cities and Built Environment
- Test Universe Universe (independent site). Test in Cities and Built Environment
- Publish Reports Reports. Publish in Cities and Built Environment
- Decide Competent authority Competent authorities and institutions, through NXS-RLS (participants, agreements and handoffs). Decide in Cities and Built Environment
- Renew Universe Corrections and the next annual agenda. Renew in Cities and Built Environment
Each step of the cycle in the pillar it runs in; the decision stays with the competent authority, outside the programme.
- Labs
- Foundry
- Universe
- Nexus Standards
- Reports
- Risk Academy
- Competent authority (outside the programme)
How this works across the six pillars.
Cities and Built Environment works through six pillars of one annual programme, led by the Nexus Consortium, with GCRI, GRF and GRA each contributing in its role: explore, experiment and prototype in Labs, build, simulate and prepare in Foundry, convene and test in Universe, codify, correct and apply in Nexus Standards, publish in every format in Reports, teach in the open in Risk Academy.
handoff in playrecorded handoffno direct handoff
Programme yearAll phases
Route
The whole programme
Every pillar hands its work to another; together they close the year’s feedback loops.
L · F · U · S · R · A
- Pillars
- 6 of 6
- Handoffs
- 18 of 18
- Loops
- 17 closed
Handoffs in play
- F01Universe → Foundry · Admitted mission becomes a cycle project with a decision caseReadiness preparation
- F02Foundry → Universe · Core Build Report and go or no-go evidenceControlled build
- F03Foundry → Reports · Sealed observations and indicator series behind a profileCloseout
- F04Universe → Reports · After-action and scenario findings for chapters 10 and 13After-action review
and 14 more
- LabsWhere questions become experiments and prototypes: new methods, data and tools are tried in the open, with their limits on record, before the Foundry builds them, under the Nexus Consortium.Labs
- FoundryWhere methods, data and models become reproducible builds, each run with its inputs, version and limits on record.Cities and Built Environment in FoundryFoundry
- UniverseWhere a build is tested under controlled conditions with independent evaluators, so a method’s skill is measured, not assumed.Cities and Built Environment in Universeuniverse.nexus
- Nexus StandardsWhere methods, identifiers and data schemas are codified in the open and corrected when a test finds a fault.Cities and the Built Environment in Standardsnexustandards.com
- ReportsWhere findings are published with their method, uncertainty and evidence class, and corrected as new versions.Cities and Built Environment in ReportsReports
- Risk AcademyWhere methods and systems are taught on real data and real places, by working the case, on Risk Academy.Faculty of Infrastructure, Energy and Industry in Academyrisksacademy.com
What the work is read against.
The platform does not set standards. It reads its evidence against the frameworks that competent bodies have adopted, so a finding can be placed where a decision-maker already works.
| Framework or standard | Body | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
| New Urban Agenda | United Nations (Habitat III), with UN-Habitat | Shared commitments on urban planning, housing, services and governance |
| Sustainable Development Goal 11 | United Nations | Targets and indicators for safe, resilient and sustainable cities and human settlements |
| Degree of Urbanisation | UN Statistical Commission, with the EC, FAO, ILO, OECD, UN-Habitat and World Bank | A harmonised method for classifying cities, towns and rural areas for international comparison |
| ISO 37120, ISO 37122 and ISO 37123 | International Organization for Standardization (ISO/TC 268) | Indicators for sustainable, smart and resilient cities |
| Making Cities Resilient initiative and Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities | UNDRR | A resilience roadmap and self-assessment built on ten essentials |
| IUCN Global Standard for Nature-based Solutions | International Union for Conservation of Nature | Criteria for designing and verifying nature-based solutions |
| WHO Housing and health guidelines | World Health Organization | Recommendations on crowding, indoor temperatures, injury hazards and accessibility in housing |
| Common Reporting Framework | Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy | Reporting of city emissions inventories, risk assessments and action plans |
The same field, seen three ways.
GCRI studies a field as science, GRF governs it and GRA builds shared financial understanding of it. Cities and Built Environment links to its counterparts so that work on one side is visible on the others.
- Disaster and Crisis GovernanceInstitutionGRFShared fieldCritical infrastructure
- Information Integrity and Public TrustInstitutionGRFShared fieldSociety and human development
- Development Finance NexusInstitutionGRAShared fieldCritical infrastructure
- Institutional Funds NexusInstitutionGRAShared fieldSociety and human development
- Financial Cyber and Operational ResilienceInstitutionGRAShared fieldCritical infrastructure
Where this page’s references lead.
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
- New Urban Agenda (Habitat III, United Nations, 2016)
- Degree of Urbanisation method, adopted for international comparison by the UN Statistical Commission (2020)
- ISO 37120:2018 Sustainable cities and communities, indicators for city services and quality of life (ISO)
- WHO Housing and health guidelines (WHO, 2018)
- Nexus Standards, the proposed NS series (nexustandards.com)
Pages in Cities and Built Environment.
Mandate and publisher
PageField overview
PageResearch and evidence
PageInnovation and practical technology
PageProgrammes and projects
PageData and technical methods
PageSpecialist community
PageLearning and professional development
PageEvents and technical dialogues
PageResearch and publications
PageParticipation paths
PageContact the specialist team
PageTrust, rights and status
PageSTEM foundation of Cities and Built Environment
PageHow work moves in this field
PageBuild in Foundry
PageTest in Universe
PagePublish in Reports
PageThe same field across the Consortium
PageTopics
Where this page leads across the Consortium.
Questions and answers.
Who publishes Cities and Built Environment?
Is Cities and Built Environment active?
How can I contribute?
Where are findings published?
Which values on this platform are real?
How do I report an error?
How does this platform differ from Critical Infrastructure?
Does the platform assess individual buildings or approve plans?
Contribute evidence from this page.
Reports is the Consortium’s quarterly publication. What you know about this subject can become evidence, a case or a correction in the next edition, credited to you and published under CC BY 4.0 where it is your own work.
- EmailGateway GW-GCRISend it from this pageEvidence, a correction, a case, a method, a review, a translation or profile input. It arrives tagged with this page, so the editor who owns it receives it.
- ZenodoOpen depositDeposit it and submit to the communityPublish your own record on Zenodo with your ORCID iD, then submit it to the Reports community there. Curators review it; the DOI stays yours.
- ReportsGCRISee every way to contributeThe contribution types, how each is reviewed, what credit you receive, the licence and what is never accepted.
Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.
How Cities and Built Environment works.
Choose a view and press Play to follow the platform’s process, its programme year, the standards it applies and how its findings are published. The outline shows how the work is designed to run, not the status of any decision.
Cities and Built Environment
How Cities and Built Environment works
Platforms · Programme year · Standards · Reports
A platform joins a field to named methods, labelled evidence and the outputs it publishes, without becoming the authority it serves.
01 Scope
- 01Field and familiesStart · The platform leadThe home states the field, its families and who it serves.
- 02Topic dossiersRecord · Platform authorsTopics explain the subject with labelled evidence.
02 Evidence
- 03Evidence labelsRecord · GCRIEach value is labelled: observed, published statistics, estimated, modelled, scenario or unknown.
- 04MethodsStep · Method ownersMethods come from the STEM Commons, each with one canonical page.
03 Work
- 05Scenarios on the systemsModel · Foundry pillarScenarios run on the Nexus systems, labelled as scenario.
- 06Standards that applyRecord · Nexus StandardsThe platform names the standards that apply. A validator report is evidence for review.
04 Publish
- 07EditionsRecord · ReportsFindings are published through Reports with their limits.
- 08Authority decidesOutcome · The competent authorityDecisions and execution stay with the government, operator or licensed institution.
Cities and Built Environment home · Platforms · Shared methodsAn outline of how the work is designed to run; it does not report the status of any decision or record.
Take part in Cities and Built Environment.
Start from who you are. Answer an open call. Or form and lead a competence cell on the Cities and Built Environment platform.
National institutions
Ministries, statistics offices and agencies: a national desk and chapter, and a seat in the working groups. National chapters
Sectors and professions
Operators, regulators, banks, insurers and professional bodies whose work touches Cities and Built Environment. Participate
Learning
Courses and practice, with a record of every course completed. Free to study. Open learning
Standards
Draft, review and adopt the methods and data standards with the working groups. Working groups
Communities and research
Universities, civil society and individual experts: projects, data and review. Write to the team
| Open call | Seeks | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Founding call for experts to the working groups CALL-FOUNDING-EXPERTS | expert, editor, chair | 2026-12-15 |
| Open nomination for the three independent expert seats of the Global Standards Council CALL-GSC-IND | council-member | 2026-12-01 |
| Nominations of interim regional members (applies only if the transitional provision is decided) CALL-GSC-REG | council-member | 2026-12-15 |
| Review of the wave-1 risk core outlines (C1, C2, C3, C4, C8, C10, C11) CALL-REVIEW-WAVE1 | contributor | 2027-01-31 |
| Experts for the core standards of risk science: uncertainty and evidence grading, scales, structured expert judgement, tolerability, extremes and compound events, catastrophic and existential risk, ethics and equity, units and measurement (NRS-C17 to NRS-C24) CALL-CORE-SCIENCE | expert, editor, chair | 2027-01-31 |
| Independent reviewers for the families of the hazard atlas, three from at least two regions for each family (NHS2-R19), priority families first CALL-ATLAS-REVIEW | expert | 2027-03-31 |
| Members of the interim Frontier Safety Review Panel and red-team reviewers (biosafety and biosecurity, AI safety and security, critical-infrastructure security); applications treated in confidence CALL-FRONTIER-SAFETY-REVIEW | expert | 2026-11-30 |
| Experts in ontology, metrology, software verification and conformity assessment for the requirement register, the NHS-2 machine representation, the conformance test suites and the conformity assessment scheme CALL-CONFORMANCE-ONTOLOGY | expert, editor | 2027-01-31 |
Calls past their closing date are hidden automatically. Every call, proposal and route: open areas and calls.
Gather the cell
Bring together three to seven people with complementary skills: data, field practice, policy and communication.
Register it
Write to the team with the cell’s name, members, area and region. You receive a reference and a contact. Write to the team
Choose a charter
Pick one focus: research and evidence, data and maps, standards review, or community preparedness.
Learn together
Follow shared study paths at Risk Academy, with practice and a record of every course completed. Hazards and resilience
Lead and report
Hold regular sessions. Publish what the cell learns through Reports. Bring findings to the working groups. Working groups
What a national team or a local community can do on The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX) today.
Your country’s profile
Open risk profiles for 195 countries, with sources and licences on every value. Open the Index
Correct or reply
Correct a value or reply for your country. The change is logged with its effect. Open the Index
Offer data
Offer a dataset. It enters through the licence gate, with your credit. Open the Index
Every figure on this page is indexed: infrastructure, society, demography, India.
The Index is the Consortium’s indexing system for risk data. Every indicator, hazard, series and country profile carries its Nexus Standards identifier, its source and its licence, so what this page shows can be traced, corrected and reused.
- 01 · Sources205 registered sourcesEvery value keeps its source and licence; withheld values are counted.Data and licences
- 02 · Nexus StandardsNIS-1 and NHS-1451 indicators, 905 hazards; every record carries a UNI.Nexus Standards
- 03 · The Index54 series, 195 country profilesComputed on the standards; no value is published until an edition is released.The Global Risks Index
- 04 · This pageCities and Built EnvironmentMaps, figures and feeds read the Index in the context of infrastructure, society, demography and India.Public API
Series in this context infrastructure, society, demography
- GSGlobal CitiesUrban exposure, heat, flooding, informal settlement, service dependency and the economic weight of cities at risk.NXS-GRX-AR-000068Demography · Hazards · Infrastructure
- GLBGlobal SystemsThe state of interdependent global risk: the twenty domain indices aggregated to the world, the five core systems (water, energy, food, health, biodiversity) and their couplings, the global tail register and the gap…NXS-GRX-AR-000002Hazards · Society · Infrastructure
- GSGlobal DisasterMulti-hazard exposure, disaster losses and mortality, return-period losses, protection gaps and coping capacity.NXS-GRX-AR-000066Hazards · Infrastructure · Society
- THDisaster Risk Reduction (DRR)Hazard, exposure, vulnerability, capacity, preparedness, redundancy and recovery readings for planning and learning, aligned to the Sendai Framework targets.NXS-GRX-AR-000109Hazards · Infrastructure · Society
Country profiles India
Every country profile carries the source and licence of each value. Correct a value or reply
Hazard domains NHS-1
- Built systemsNXS-GRX-AR-000144
- Society, conflict and economyNXS-GRX-AR-000147
Geodata and API open
Open layers on an equal-area hexagon grid, shown as densities per km² or as symbols: People · GHSL 2025People · WorldPop 2025Built-up areaPortsAirportsRoadsRailwaysRivers and lake centrelines
/api/v1/public/grix · https://nexustandards.com/uni/{uni}
Developers · Data · Made with Natural Earth, Public domain; GHSL and WorldPop, CC BY 4.0
Snapshot of the Index registries pinned 2026-10-23 · 22c6eed. Research and risk-analytics information: not a rating, an official classification, a warning, a benchmark or advice.
Bring a method, a dataset or a question.
Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.
Legal documents.
Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.