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GCRI · Systemic Risk Management

Enterprise and public risk

Enterprise risk management protects an organisation’s objectives; public risk management protects a population and its services. The two meet at shared infrastructure, outsourced public services, supply chains and the losses that firms cannot bear and governments end up carrying. This page sets out how each works, where their boundaries leave risks unowned, and what evidence helps executives and public servants align their management of shared exposures.

01Register

Enterprise and public risk on the record.

02The question

Enterprise and public risk: how the risk develops.

Private, sovereign and community mandates. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.

Mechanism

Firms manage their own loss

Enterprise risk management weighs risks against an organisation’s own objectives and appetite. Losses that fall on customers, communities or other firms are counted only where law, contract or reputation brings them back.

Mechanism

Government carries residual risk

When private resilience falls short, the public sector often absorbs the loss through emergency response, bailouts, compensation or lost services. These implicit commitments are rarely priced or recorded.

Mechanism

Outsourcing moves operations, not accountability

Public services delivered by contractors depend on the contractor’s continuity, finance and suppliers. The public body remains accountable for the service even when it no longer controls the operation.

Mechanism

Registers do not connect

Corporate risk registers and national risk assessments describe overlapping exposures in different terms. Without a shared view, neither side sees the risks that sit between them.

03Geography

Hazards and exposure in Asia.

Population density, night lights and flood water over Asia, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.

The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.

Layers 3

Hazards and exposure, for this page

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 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
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 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
Observed (clouds and overpass timing leave gaps)
Source
VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS) (NASA LANCE FIRMS)
Provider
NASA LANCE FIRMS
Licence
NASA open data
Vintage
daily; Satellite detection; clouds and overpass timing leave gaps
Newest at build
2026-10-13
Resolution
about 500 m grid
Uncertainty
Satellite hot-spot detections for the day shown, including gas flares and industrial heat; not a confirmed fire, an incident report or a warning.
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

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.

Hazards and exposure, framed on Asia.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 · U.S. Geological Survey · 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
  • 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 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
  • 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
  • NASA Fire Information for Resource Management System (FIRMS), VIIRS 375 m active fire product, NASA LANCE; vector tiles 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.
  • Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
  • Live: U.S. Geological Survey Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
  • 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.
  • 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 (11 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

  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
  • Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
  • Land cover type (IGBP), yearly: MODIS Terra and Aqua land cover (MCD12Q1), NASA LP DAAC · 2024

04Across the domains

Public and enterprise risk meet in shared infrastructure and services.

05Monitor

Risk register.

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

Risk register

Enterprise and public risk · Enterprise A · Review cycle Q4

Three risks above appetiteGCRI · Systemic Risk Management

Residual risk

likelihood × impact, risks per cell

Counts of risks per cell. Shading follows the appetite bands.

Above appetite

Supplier concentrationProcurementHigh▲ 1
Data centre floodingOperationsHigh▲ 0
Model error in pricingFinanceMedium▲ 1
Key staff lossPeopleMedium▼ 1

Risk management process, after the international standard

  1. Scope, context, criteriaset
  2. Identifytaxonomy
  3. Analyselikelihood · impact
  4. Evaluatevs appetite
  5. Treatplans
  6. Monitor and reviewKRIs
  7. Record and reportboard

Treatment actions

  1. T-11Dual-source critical componentOwner: procurement · overdue6 d late
  2. T-14Move backup site above flood levelOwner: operationsdue 16 d
  3. T-17Independent model validationOwner: financedue 38 d
Risk register: the screen’s structure, terms and states for Enterprise and public risk.Example names and illustrative values; a design, not a record or a live system.
06Indicators

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.

IndicatorUnitCadenceSource typeLabel
Contingent liabilities disclosedcount and type in public accountsannualGovernment financial statements and fiscal risk statementsPublished statistics
Critical public services delivered by contractorscount of servicesannualContract registersPublished statistics
Contracts with continuity and exit clausespercent of critical contractsannualContract management recordsREPORTED
Principal risks linked to national risk categoriespercent of disclosed principal risksannualDisclosure analysisESTIMATED
Public-private exercises heldcountannualExercise programme recordsREPORTED
Emergency support provided to firmscount of support measures by typeper eventPublic budget and aid recordsPublished statistics
07Twin and cascade simulator

Model enterprise and public risk as a system. Run the cascade.

Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Global and systemic risk: 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
  • Financial contagion
  • 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)
  • Sovereign debt crisis (set off downstream)
  • Currency crisis (set off downstream)

Controls

  • NS-0 Constitution and principles
  • NS-3 Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)
  • 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)
  • NS-14 Conformance and crosswalk to external standards
  • NRS-H120 Hazard family: Structural fragility of interconnected systems (NHS-1 sys.fragility)
  • NRS-C6 Systemic and cascading risk
  • NRS-H61 Hazard family: Cascading failure (NHS-1 sys.cascade)
  • NRS-H62 Hazard family: Compound and multi-hazard events (NHS-1 sys.compound)
  • NRS-H94 Hazard family: Systemic cyber events (NHS-1 cyber.systemic-cyber)
  • NRS-H60 Hazard family: Supply-chain and flow disruption (NHS-1 sys.supply-chain)

Observation

  • INFORM Risk Index (listed for reference)
  • World Bank Open Data and World Development Indicators API (listed for reference)
  • IMF data services (WEO, IFS, FSI via SDMX) (listed for reference)
  • Direct economic loss attributed to disasters in relation to global GDP
  • Macroeconomic Dashboard

Example geography

  • Bangladesh: 134 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
08Sources

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.

SourceWhat it givesLicence class
IMF Fiscal Transparency Code and fiscal risk statementsStandards for disclosing fiscal risks and contingent liabilitiesPublic, IMF terms of use
Government financial statements and public accountsRecorded provisions, guarantees and contingent liabilitiesPublic records, licence per government
Public contract registers and procurement portalsWhich services are contracted out and to whomOpen data where published, licence per portal
Corporate annual reports and principal risk disclosuresHow firms describe their risks and dependenciesPublic records, terms per publisher
OECD reports on the governance of critical risksPractice on public-private cooperation in risk managementPublic, OECD terms of use
09Methods and evidence

How enterprise and public risk 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 enterprise and public risk, the assumptions it makes and how each is tested.

Risk of element iRi = f(Hi, Ei, Vi, Ci)hazard, exposure, vulnerability and coping capacity
Expected annual lossEAL = ∑k pk · Lkover events k with annual probability pk
Coupled systemsxt+1 = A xt + B ut + εtA carries the couplings, u the shock, ε the error
AssumptionWhy it is madeHow it is tested
Hazard and exposure are independent within an eventKeeps the loss integral tractableCompare with a copula fit on joint records
Couplings are linear near the operating pointLets shocks propagate through APerturb beyond the linear range and compare
Vulnerability curves transfer between placesLocal curves are rarely availableValidate 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
Standard risk and state-space formulations; the assumptions listed are typical of the method, stated for review, not results.
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
10Decisions

Who decides, and what the evidence serves.

Systemic Risk Management prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.

Who decidesThe questionEvidence this page serves
Ministries of financeWhich contingent liabilities to record, limit or provisionFiscal risk notes; support measures in past events
Commissioning public bodiesWhich continuity and exit terms to require in critical service contractsContract continuity reviews; supplier dependency maps
Corporate boardsWhich of the firm’s risks fall on public services or communitiesShared exposure maps; national risk crosswalks

Outputs this topic produces

  • Maps of shared exposures between firms and public services
  • Fiscal risk notes on implicit public commitments
  • Contract continuity reviews for outsourced critical services
  • Crosswalks between corporate and national risk categories
11Core questions

What experts ask about mandates.

  • Which risks does each mandate cover, and which fall between them?
  • When a firm reduces its own risk, where does that risk go?
  • How do governments act as insurers of last resort, and how does that change private behaviour?
  • How can communities, which bear many consequences, take part in decisions about risk?
12Mechanisms

How risk moves between mandates.

Each mandate has its own objectives, accountability and tools. Because none of them sees the whole system, risk tends to flow towards whoever is least able to refuse it or least able to see it coming.

Enterprise

Risk transfer

Firms transfer risk through contracts, insurance and outsourcing. The risk does not disappear; it moves.

Sovereign

Implicit backstop

When losses are too large for others, public budgets absorb them, which can encourage risk-taking elsewhere.

Community

Residual risk

Households and communities carry what no one else covers, often with little voice in the decisions that created it.

13Methods and limits

How cross-mandate risk is analysed.

  1. 01

    Enterprise risk frameworks

    Structured processes for organisational risk. Limits: they focus inward and seldom capture risks imposed on others.

  2. 02

    National risk assessments

    Government assessments of major risks to a country. Limits: quality and openness vary, and private dependencies are often unclear.

  3. 03

    Distributional analysis

    Tracing who bears losses across groups. Limits: data on household exposure is often weak.

  4. 04

    Participatory methods

    Involving affected communities in risk assessment, supported by decision analysis. Limits: requires time, trust and resources.

14Methods

How it is studied, and what the methods cannot say.

  1. Decision analysis under uncertaintyMulti-criteria treatment choice · Decision trees for contingent plansApplied here
  2. Scenario design and stress testingCross-sector scenario design · Reverse stress testing · Second-round effectsApplied here
  3. Network science and contagionDependency network mapping · Centrality and concentration · Failure propagation simulationApplied here
15Where this page’s references

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.

16Questions

Questions and answers.

What is enterprise risk management?
A coordinated approach an organisation uses to identify, assess, treat and monitor risks to its objectives across all its activities, usually under a framework such as ISO 31000 or COSO.
What is a contingent liability?
An obligation that depends on a future event, such as a loan guarantee or an implicit commitment to support a failing service, which may or may not become a cost.
Why connect corporate and public risk registers?
Because firms and public bodies often depend on the same infrastructure and suppliers. Linking their registers shows shared exposures that neither would see alone.
Why does risk transfer matter systemically?
Because transferred risk can concentrate in a few places, such as a single insurer, supplier or public budget, creating new points of failure.
Is public risk management different in kind?
It has broader objectives, including fairness, rights and public trust, and the government often cannot transfer its risks to anyone else.
Does the platform advise governments?
It publishes methods and evidence. Bounded technical assistance under a defined scope is a separate GCRI service that opens only with its terms and team.
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