The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
A city works only because its systems hold together: buildings rely on utilities, utilities rely on each other, people rely on transport and services, and all of them rely on finance, law and the natural systems around the city. When one link fails, effects travel along the others. This page sets out the main physical, economic, social and ecological dependencies that Cities and Built Environment, a platform of The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI), studies.
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NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
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For dependencies and consequences, 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.
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GeographyFor dependencies and consequences, 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.
Dependencies and consequences in Cities and Built Environment describe how cities and built environment, critical infrastructure, and society and human development connect to other systems through physical, economic, social and ecological links, and how stress travels along them toward fields such as those of Disaster and Crisis Governance and Information Integrity and Public Trust. Every dependency map states its assumptions, data and uncertainty; it describes connections, not a forecast.
Fig.How GCRI, GRF and GRA share one field while the authorities decide. Design, not a record.
The working screen behind this subject: its structure, terms and states. Names are placeholders and values illustrative.
| Dependency | How stress travels | Typical consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Power to water | Pumping and treatment stop when electricity fails | Loss of supply and sanitation, health risk |
| Power to mobility | Signals, rail and charging stop | Gridlock, stranded passengers, delayed emergency response |
| Heat to power | Cooling demand peaks while lines and plants lose capacity | Outages at the hottest hours |
| Drainage to transport | Surface water floods underpasses and underground lines | Network-wide disruption |
| Communications to all | Control systems and payments depend on networks | Services halt even where assets are intact |
These are mechanisms, not measured probabilities. See interdependency and cascade on Critical Infrastructure.
Damage to buildings and networks interrupts business, reduces tax revenue and raises public spending at the same time. Where insurance is absent or withdrawn, losses fall on households, firms and governments. Property values, mortgage books and municipal credit are tied to the exposure of the urban fabric, which is why the same questions are examined for finance at The Global Risks Alliance (GRA), on Development Finance Nexus and housing and property finance.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Interdependency | A two-way dependency between infrastructures, such as power needing telecoms for control while telecoms need power to run. |
| Cascading risk | Risk that a failure in one system or component triggers failures in others that depend on it. |
| Compound event | Two or more hazards or drivers occurring together or in sequence whose joint impact exceeds what either would cause alone, such as drought followed by intense rain; IPCC assessments use the term. |
| Dependency mapping | Tracing the people, processes, technology, facilities and suppliers a service relies on. |
Dependency analysis combines geospatial information systems to locate assets and people, spatial statistics to describe exposure and uncertainty, sensors and observation networks to observe performance, and social science to understand vulnerability. Every dependency map states its assumptions, data and limits; see methods and uncertainty. Related pages: field overview and counterparts across the Consortium.
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.