GCRI · Foundry
Maps and GIS
Maps are where risk evidence becomes visible, and where it is most easily misread or misused. A layer in the wrong coordinate reference, at the wrong resolution or from the wrong date can mislead a planner; a map of water intakes or substations published without generalisation can expose critical infrastructure; a household-scale vulnerability map can harm the people it describes. This page sets out how geospatial error and disclosure risk arise and spread, and what a public-safe release decision needs.
Maps and GIS on the record.
Maps and GIS: how the risk develops.
Approved geospatial public views. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Reference and alignment error
A layer in one datum overlaid on another, a grid resampled twice, a vertical reference left undeclared. Each shifts features by a margin that looks small on screen and matters at the scale of a levee, a parcel or a pipe.
Scale and aggregation
Results change with the boundaries chosen, the modifiable areal unit problem. Hazard grids, census units and service areas rarely align, and every reconciliation between them is a modelling choice that should be stated beside the map.
Layers of different dates
Building footprints, roads and asset registers age unevenly. A map assembled from layers of different dates shows a place that never existed at any single moment, and exposure counts inherit the oldest layer’s error.
Disclosure through combination
Layers that are harmless alone can identify a facility or a household when overlaid. Once a precise layer is public it is copied, cached and tiled, so generalisation and withholding must happen before release, not after.
Connected activity in North America.
Night lights, population density and land cover over North America, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Connected activity, 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
- 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
- MODIS Terra EVI (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite index; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-13
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite vegetation index for the 8 days to the date shown, a habitat condition indicator; not a measure of species or biodiversity.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- MODIS Terra NDVI (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite index; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-13
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite greenness index over the 8 days to the date shown; an indicator of crop and pasture condition, not a yield estimate or a food security 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.
Connected activity, framed on North America.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/NOAA VIIRS · 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
- 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.
- Observed (EO): NASA/NOAA VIIRS (Suomi NPP). 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).
- Optional layers (5 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
- 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
- Enhanced vegetation index, rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra EVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Vegetation greenness (NDVI), rolling 8 days: MODIS Terra NDVI, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
Maps in Foundry are designed to serve every domain from shared layers.
Map products follow NS-5 of the proposed Nexus Standards and OGC and STAC specifications. National geospatial agencies hold authoritative data under the UN-IGIF.
- Layer corrections.
- Local reference data.
GIS and modelling workspace.
The screen a team would use to follow this subject: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
What is measured, and how well.
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Layers with declared horizontal and vertical reference | proportion of catalogue | per release | Catalogue metadata | DECLARED |
| Positional accuracy against control points | metres, root mean square error | per dataset | Survey control comparison | OBSERVED |
| Layer currency | days since source capture | per release | Source metadata | REPORTED |
| Metadata completeness against the profile | proportion of required fields | per dataset | Metadata validation | OBSERVED |
| Topology rule violations | count per layer | per ingest | Topology validation | OBSERVED |
| Public layers with a recorded public-safe decision | proportion of public layers | per release | Release records | OBSERVED |
| Published generalisation size | metres or cell size | per layer | Release records | DECLARED |
Model Maps and GIS as a system. Run the cascade.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Critical infrastructure and critical entities: 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
- Dam failure
- River flood (set off downstream)
- Flash flood (set off downstream)
- Mass displacement (set off downstream)
- Widespread power outage (set off downstream)
- Water supply shortfall (set off downstream)
Systems and couplings
- Critical infrastructure and critical entities
- Energy risk standards Dependency
- Space weather, spectrum and timing risk standards Common-mode dependency
- Compound and cascading hazard standards Cascade
- Cyber resilience and digital operational resilience Common driver
Controls
NS-0Constitution and principlesNS-3Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)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-H61Hazard family: Cascading failure (NHS-1 sys.cascade)NRS-H94Hazard family: Systemic cyber events (NHS-1 cyber.systemic-cyber)NRS-H107Hazard family: Digital infrastructure concentration and monoculture (NHS-1 tech.digital-concentration)NRS-K31Domain pack profile: Cyber national resilience (DOMAIN-031)NRS-K36Domain pack profile: Critical infrastructure (DOMAIN-036)NRS-K48Domain pack profile: Financial system resilience (DOMAIN-048)
Observation
- OpenStreetMap planet and replication (listed for reference)
- Global Power Plant Database (listed for reference)
- NASA Black Marble night-time lights (VNP46) (listed for reference)
- Global Human Settlement Layer (listed for reference)
- Damage to critical infrastructure attributed to disasters
- Number of disruptions to basic services attributed to disasters
- Proportion of the rural population who live within 2 km of an all-season road
Example geography
- Europe: 113 hexagonal cells
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
- Surface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar), NASA GIBS
- Rain rate, last half hour (IMERG), NASA GIBS
- Surface soil moisture (SMAP), NASA GIBS
Where the evidence comes from.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStreetMap | Roads, buildings, facilities and land use, edited by a global community | ODbL, share-alike |
| Natural Earth | Cartographic boundaries, coastlines and populated places at small scales | Public domain |
| geoBoundaries | Administrative boundaries with documented sources | Open, licence per boundary set |
| Copernicus DEM | Global elevation for terrain, drainage and inundation work | Free and open, attribution |
| Sentinel-2 through the Copernicus Data Space Ecosystem | Optical imagery at ten-metre resolution with STAC access | Free and open, attribution |
| Landsat collections (USGS) | A long optical archive for land change | Public domain |
| EPSG Geodetic Parameter Dataset | Authoritative definitions of coordinate reference systems and transformations | Free, terms of use |
| Global Human Settlement Layer (JRC) | Built-up area and population grids for exposure | CC BY 4.0 |
How Maps and GIS 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.
Model, equations and assumptions
The model structure used for Maps and GIS, 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
Who decides, and what the evidence serves.
Foundry prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| National mapping and cadastral agencies | Which reference frames and base layers are authoritative for the country | Datum and projection metadata; positional accuracy against control |
| Data owners and infrastructure operators | Whether a layer showing their assets may be published, and at what generalisation | Disclosure review, proposed cell size, combinations with other public layers |
| Planners and emergency managers | Whether a map is fit for the decision at hand | Layer dates, resolution, method and uncertainty stated on the map |
| Data protection authorities | Whether a map of people risks identifying individuals or groups | Aggregation level, small-count suppression and the release record |
Outputs this topic produces
- Catalogued layers with reference system, date, resolution and lineage
- Exposure overlays with denominators and the aggregation stated
- Public-safe map packages with the release decision recorded
- OGC API and STAC endpoints for released material
What geospatial specialists ask.
- Is the coordinate reference, resolution and date of each layer fit for the decision at hand?
- How is uncertainty carried from the source data into the map, and shown to the reader?
- Which layers are sensitive, and how are they generalised or withheld?
- Who has the right to publish each layer, and under which licence?
Two systems carry the geospatial work.
The Earth Observation Platform (NXS-EOP (earth observation and digital twins)) is designed to federate satellite, aerial, meteorological and in-situ sources behind a catalogue and to hand derived layers on with lineage, uncertainty and quality evidence. The NXS-NST (civilian common operating picture) common operating picture layers basemaps, hazard products, incidents, assets and routes for civilian coordination, including offline field work. The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX) binds each risk record to a spatial and temporal frame so that a layer always says where and when it applies.
The core scientific issues are familiar to any GIS analyst: the modifiable areal unit problem, where results change with the boundaries chosen; scale mismatch between hazard grids and administrative statistics; positional error in asset registers; and the temptation to read a modelled surface as an observation. Each released map is designed to state its method, date, resolution and uncertainty, and what it cannot show.
Open standards, with their limits.
Interoperable formats
OGC API Features, STAC, Cloud Optimized GeoTIFF and GeoJSON, so released material can be reused in common GIS tools.
Public-safe decision
Source permission, sensitivity, risk to people and meaning are checked, and the decision is recorded before publication.
What maps cannot do
A map cannot resolve uncertainty in its inputs, and generalisation for safety reduces detail that some users would want.
NXS-NST supports civilian coordination. It is not a dispatch, warning or surveillance authority, and no map published here is an authority warning.
How it is studied, and what the methods cannot say.
- 01Geospatial information systemsImagery catalogues through STAC · Exposure overlays with stated aggregationApplied here
- 02Data engineering, interoperability and stewardshipValidation at the ingest boundary · Frozen data cuts for reproducible productsApplied here
- 03High-performance, cloud and edge computingEnsemble scheduling across tiers · Federated execution next to the dataApplied here
- 04Artificial intelligence and machine learningEarth observation models with spatial validation · Model cards and promotion recordsApplied here
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.
Questions and answers.
Why are some layers generalised or withheld?
Which standards do released maps follow?
Can an OpenStreetMap-derived layer be reused?
Is any public map released yet?
Can a demonstration show my institution’s data?
Can I download layers?
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.
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.