The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Food systems depend on water, energy, soils, ecosystems, transport, finance and labour, and they place demands on all of them in return. This page maps the main links, shows how stress travels along them and names the platforms across the Consortium that study, govern or finance the connected systems.
Risk fieldWhere systemic stress concentrates across the areas GCRI works in. Illustrative levels, not findings.
Dependencies and consequences in Food Nexus describe how food and agriculture, trade, resources and supply chains, and climate and hazards connect to other systems through physical, economic, social and ecological links, and how stress travels along them toward fields such as those of Diplomacy Nexus and Climate and Nature Governance. 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.
Irrigated land produces a large share of food. Groundwater depletion, river flow change and salinity reduce output. See Water Nexus.
Pumping, machinery, drying, cold storage and nitrogen fertilizer synthesis all depend on energy, so energy prices pass into food prices. See Energy Nexus.
Pollinators, soil organisms and natural pest control underpin yields; land conversion erodes them. See Biodiversity Nexus.
A drought in a major exporting region lowers supply, prompts export restrictions and raises world prices, which import-dependent countries feel through their currency and budgets.
A power outage stops refrigeration, causing loss of perishable food and medicines and raising food safety risk. This is one of the exercise themes in the Nexus Universe programme.
A livestock or crop disease outbreak triggers culling or movement controls, cuts household income and changes trade flows.
Conflict disrupts planting, markets and transport corridors and can cut off humanitarian access.
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 uses econometrics, optimization and operations research and spatial statistics, with stated assumptions and uncertainty. The financial transmission of agricultural risk is studied at Climate and Nature Financial Risk and Reinsurance and Catastrophe at The Global Risks Alliance (GRA); trade and diplomacy dialogue is convened at the Diplomacy Nexus of The Global Risks Forum (GRF).
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.