The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Technology relevant to cities and built environment, critical infrastructure and society and human development: what it can do, the constraints it faces and its consequences for people and institutions.
Fig.How a finding is reviewed before it is published. Design, not a record.
Innovation at Cities and Built Environment is the evaluation of technology relevant to cities and built environment: the need it addresses, the evidence behind it, its constraints and its consequences for safety, rights and the environment. Promising work can be built in Nexus Foundry and tested in Nexus Universe; nothing is called proven before test and review, and no product is endorsed.
For innovation and practical technology, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on night lights, population density and true-colour imagery with built-up and settlement extent from NASA GIBS, framed on India; 3 further NASA layers wait in the list.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Urban signals, for this page
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.
For innovation and practical technology, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on night lights, population density and true-colour imagery with built-up and settlement extent from NASA GIBS, framed on India; 3 further NASA layers wait in the list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Layers and dates
Which problem does the technology address, and for whom?
What has been demonstrated, under what conditions, and what remains untested?
Cost, skills, infrastructure, data and governance requirements.
Effects on safety, rights, equity and the environment.
| Technology | What it could change | What remains to be shown |
|---|---|---|
| Building footprint extraction from imagery | City-wide building inventories | Attribute accuracy, informal structures |
| Cool roofs and urban greening at scale | Lower heat exposure | Maintenance, water use, equity of placement |
| Urban digital twins | Planning and response scenarios | Data governance, cost |
| Low-cost air and heat sensors | Neighbourhood-level monitoring | Calibration and maintenance |
Promising work can be built in Nexus Foundry and tested under controlled conditions through Nexus Universe. No technology is described as proven before it has been tested and reviewed.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Technology readiness level | A scale from basic principles to proven operation that describes how mature a technology is. |
| Responsible innovation | Anticipating and governing the effects of new technology together with society. |
| Testbed | A controlled setting, from a lab rig to a field site or sandbox, for trying a technology before it meets real conditions of use. |
| Urban heat island | The tendency of cities to be warmer than their surroundings because built surfaces store heat and vegetation is scarce. |
The bodies and documents this page is read against. Status and editions change; each link goes to the issuing body.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. 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.