The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Water systems sit at the centre of a web of physical, economic, social and ecological dependencies. Stress in a catchment or a utility can reach power grids, farms, hospitals, supply chains and public budgets, and failures elsewhere can reach water services in return. This page explains the main causal links, how stress travels along them and how Water Nexus analyses them without overstating what is known.
Dependencies and consequences in Water Nexus describe how water, climate and hazards, and critical infrastructure 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.
Pumping and treatment depend on electricity; thermal plants need cooling water and hydropower needs flow. See Water and energy interdependence.
Drainage, roads, telecommunications and power often share corridors and flood together, so a single event can disable several services at once.
Urbanisation, deforestation and drainage alter runoff, recharge and sediment, changing flood peaks and water quality downstream.
Wetlands, floodplains and riparian forests store floodwater, recharge aquifers and filter pollutants. Over-abstraction, pollution and channel engineering degrade those functions, which then raises flood and quality risks for people. Reduced river flow also concentrates pollutants and warms water, which affects both ecosystems and the cooling capacity of power plants.
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. |
Water Nexus maps dependencies with system diagrams, coupled models and network analysis, supported by spatial statistics and uncertainty quantification. Every dependency map states its assumptions, data sources and the uncertainty attached to each link.
A dependency map is not a forecast. It shows how systems are connected and how stress could travel; forecasts and scenarios are labelled as such. Security-sensitive details of specific assets are never published. Counterparts at The Global Risks Forum (GRF), such as Climate and Nature Governance, and at The Global Risks Alliance (GRA), such as Climate and Nature Financial Risk, use these maps for governance and financial-sector understanding under their own mandates.
See methods and uncertainty for how models are validated.
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.