GCRI · Cities and Built Environment

Environmental engineering for cities

Environmental engineering designs the water, sanitation, drainage, waste and air quality systems that keep cities healthy. In this field it covers urban drainage and sustainable drainage systems, sanitation for unserved areas and pollution control.

01Register

Environmental engineering for cities on the record.

Method recordSTEM method
  1. MethodWater and environmental engineering
  2. Applied inCities and Built Environment
  3. Canonical pageSTEM Commons
02Application

What water and environmental engineering does here.

Water and environmental engineering designs systems for water supply, wastewater treatment, drainage and pollution control. It protects public health and ecosystems while meeting the demands of cities, industry and agriculture. In cities and built environment, critical infrastructure and society and human development, environmental engineering connects hydrological hazards to service continuity and public health. It informs investment in water infrastructure that supports food, energy and urban resilience. The canonical description is on the STEM Commons.

Urban drainage design

Drainage networks and sustainable drainage features are modelled against design storms, including changing rainfall, to find where capacity falls short.

Sanitation for unserved areas

Options such as sewers, simplified sewers and on-site systems with faecal sludge management are compared for dense and informal areas.

Waste and drainage links

Waste generation and collection data are combined with drainage maps to show where uncollected waste is likely to block drains.

03Geography

Water now in India.

Rain, flood water and night lights 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

Water now, for this page

About this layer
Evidence
Estimated
Source
GPM IMERG (NASA GES DISC)
Provider
NASA GES DISC
Licence
NASA open data
Vintage
daily; Satellite estimate, near real time
Newest at build
2026-10-12
Resolution
about 2 km grid
Uncertainty
Satellite estimate, near real time. 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
Observed (clouds leave gaps)
Source
VIIRS Global Flood Product (NASA LANCE)
Provider
NASA LANCE
Licence
NASA open data
Vintage
daily; Satellite detection; clouds leave gaps
Newest at build
2026-10-14
Resolution
about 250 m grid
Uncertainty
Satellite detection; clouds leave gaps. 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
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
Modelled
Source
SMAP Level 4 (NASA NSIDC DAAC)
Provider
NASA NSIDC DAAC
Licence
NASA open data
Vintage
daily; Model with satellite data assimilated
Newest at build
2026-10-11
Resolution
about 2 km grid
Uncertainty
Model with satellite data assimilated. 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
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
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

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.

Water now, 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 · NASA GPM IMERG Early · 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
  • GPM IMERG precipitation, NASA Precipitation Processing System; distributed by the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
  • 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
  • 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
  • SMAP Level 4 soil moisture and snow mass, NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office; distributed by the NASA National Snow and Ice Data Center 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
  • 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: NASA GPM IMERG Early. 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).
  • 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).
  • River discharge forecast, 30 days with range (GloFAS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Emergency Management Service information 2026; not a flood warning.
  • Past year, daily temperature (ERA5 via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change 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 (14 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

  • Precipitation rate, daily mean: GPM IMERG, NASA GES DISC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Root-zone soil moisture, 0 to 100 cm: SMAP Level 4, NASA NSIDC DAAC · 11 Oct 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

04Data

What the method consumes.

Datasets and records used by water and environmental engineering on this platform, with the role each plays and the label its values carry. Sources are listed in the source register.

DataRoleLabel
Drainage network recordsCapacityPublished statistics
Rainfall records and design stormsInputsOBSERVED
Sanitation surveysCoverage and systemsREPORTED
Waste collection dataService levelsREPORTED
05Monitor

Field sampling.

The screen a team would use to follow this method: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.

Field sampling

Cities · Environmental engineering · Run R-7979

Three sites overdueGCRI · Cities and Built Environment

Sampling sites

red: result above guideline

Circle size: exposure value · exampleN

Latest results

S-21Land11.36Above
S-14Green3.48Below
S-34Housing2.27Above
S-18Public10.89Above

Trend at selected site

Field sampling: the screen’s structure, terms and states for Cities.Example names and illustrative values; a design, not a record or a live system.
06Validation

How results are checked.

Designs are verified against regulatory standards and pilot testing. Network models are calibrated with field pressure and flow measurements.

CheckHow it is done
Model calibrationDrainage models are calibrated with recorded flood events
Climate allowanceDesign storms include stated allowances for changing rainfall
Service chain reviewSanitation is assessed along the full chain to safe treatment

Ageing assets and incomplete records limit model accuracy. Emerging contaminants and changing rainfall patterns challenge existing designs.

07Simulator

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
41%
Amplification of the initial damage
8.0 times
Steps to settle
2
Numbers, methods and sources
StepTransport working (%)Power working (%)Telecoms working (%)
01008989
11003944
2782222

Methods

  1. Interdependent networks Buldyrev and others (2010), Catastrophic cascade of failures in interdependent networks, Nature 464
  2. Overload cascades Motter and Lai (2002), Physical Review E 66
  3. Betweenness load Brandes (2001), Journal of Mathematical Sociology 25
  4. Multilayer networks Kivela and others (2014), Journal of Complex Networks 2
  5. Infrastructure interdependencies Rinaldi, Peerenboom and Kelly (2001), IEEE Control Systems 21(6)
  6. Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
  7. 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
A cascade through interdependent networks. Illustrative teaching model: it runs on the values set by the controls, not on measured data. 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).
09Twin and cascade simulator

Model environmental engineering for cities 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)

Controls

  • NS-0 Constitution and principles
  • NS-3 Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)
  • NS-5 Figure, map and visualisation standard (with the UI/UX kit)
  • NS-9 Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)
  • NS-10 Policies and clauses (machine-readable obligations: definition, binding, evaluation and enforcement)
  • NS-11 Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)
  • NRS-X5 Cities and built environment risk
  • NRS-H91 Hazard family: Urban and building-stock stress (NHS-1 infra.urban)
  • NRS-H113 Hazard family: Financial-system fragility (NHS-1 soc.financial-system)
  • NRS-K7 Domain pack profile: Cities urban (DOMAIN-007)
  • NRS-H31 Hazard family: Persistent and bioaccumulative substances (NHS-1 poll.persistent)
  • NRS-H34 Hazard 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
10Stewardship

Who maintains the method.

Water Nexus stewards water and environmental engineering for the Consortium and reviews how it is applied across platforms.

11Methods and evidence

How environmental engineering for cities 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 environmental engineering for cities: signs of influence, a reinforcing and a balancing loop, and cross-links where stress jumps.

++−++CitiesCritical infrastructureSocietyCommunitiesEconomyR reinforcingB balancing
Causal loop diagram from the page’s systems; signs show the direction of influence. Illustrative structure for a system dynamics or network model, not estimated couplings.
FAIR guiding principles · GO FAIR and FORCE11W3C PROV · World Wide Web ConsortiumGuidance on consistent treatment of uncertainties · IPCCCEOS Analysis Ready Data · Committee on Earth Observation Satellites
13Questions

Questions and answers.

What are the limits of water and environmental engineering in this field?
Ageing assets and incomplete records limit model accuracy. Emerging contaminants and changing rainfall patterns challenge existing designs.
How are results checked?
Designs are verified against regulatory standards and pilot testing. Network models are calibrated with field pressure and flow measurements.
Are the values on this page real?
The data names, roles and checks are real descriptions of practice. The canvas shows a design of the method’s use, not a run; no result is reported here.
Where else is this method applied?
The canonical method page lists every platform that applies it.
ReportsContribute

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.

GCRICities and Built EnvironmentGlobal Sector Risk and ResilienceEvidence Brief
Cities and Built Environment

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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.

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Our articles, maps and twins are free to read and free to republish. Readers and partners keep it that way.

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Independence

Editors and the expert reviewers named on each article decide what we publish. Funders and partners do not review or approve articles before publication.

Licence

Articles: CC BY 4.0. Figures, maps, twins and data: CC BY 4.0. Other uses: ask through the permissions form.