Illustrative: event footprints crossing a portfolio, losses rising and the exceedance-probability curve
Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Finance and Economics
Insurance and Actuarial Science
Disaster risk finance
Disaster risk finance, taught twice over: as the working methods of the field and as its frontier since 2024, with labs on the Academy's tools, open data and the Nexus Standards.
Disaster risk finance: foundations and practice
Disaster risk finance plans in advance how the costs of disasters will be met.
- Level
- L2 Intermediate
- Study time
- about 24 hours (planning estimate)
- Status
- In authoring
- Prerequisites
- An L1 course in the area, or an entry review
Why now
Aims to link sovereign demand for risk transfer with industry capacity while building domestic insurance markets. Global Shield against Climate Risks, Global Shield against Climate Risks Announces New Partnership with Insurance Development Forum to Strengthen Climate and Disaster Risk Insurance Markets, 24 June 2026
Learning outcomes
- Define risk layering and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
- Explain risk layering and contingency funds and budgets with a worked example and its source
- Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
- Analyse a named case against contingent credit, stating evidence, date and limits
Modules
- Risk layering
- Risk layering
- Contingency funds and budgets
- Contingent credit
- Parametric insurance and risk pools
- Parametric insurance and risk pools
- Catastrophe bonds
- Pre-arranged finance for anticipatory action
- Sovereign contingent liabilities
- Sovereign contingent liabilities
- Post-disaster financing
- Lab: the discipline's method
- A government faces frequent small disaster losses and rare large ones; each layer is cheapest to finance with a different instrument, and the retention level where reserves end and insurance begins sets the yearly cost of the whole strategy.
- Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
- Read the method's sources and stated values
Labs with Academy tools
- MethodLayering disaster risk: reserves for the frequent, insurance for the rare, and the cost of what is leftThe discipline's method on the discipline page, with its cited sources, worked through a documented case
- InstrumentLoss exceedance curveA faculty instrument on the faculty page, run on the faculty's digital twin data
- InstrumentTerm structureA faculty instrument on the faculty page, run on the faculty's digital twin data
- Twin builderDigital twin builderBuild the faculty's place in 3D, switch layers and read the credits and dates of each
- Map layerEarthquakes M4.5+, past week (USGS)An open map layer the Academy's licence register admits, read in the map tools
- Map layerSurface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar)An open map layer the Academy's licence register admits, read in the map tools
- Map layerRiver discharge forecast, 30 days with range (GloFAS via Open-Meteo)An open map layer the Academy's licence register admits, read in the map tools
- Foundry roomTriggers room, NXS-AAP (anticipatory action and triggers)Parametric triggers linked to feasible actions
- Foundry roomReadiness room, NXS-AAPFinancing readiness of early actions
Nexus Standards
Teaches
Relies on
- NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
- NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
- NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
- NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
- NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
- NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
- NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
- NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance
Assessment
- 40%Lab recordWork the discipline's method through a documented case and explain each result with its source and date
- 40%Case memoApply the discipline's methods to a named place or organisation, stating evidence and limits
- 20%Key terms checkShort answers on the key terms, marked against the definitions
Delivery
- Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
- Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
- Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses
Partner on this course
- Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
- Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
- Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
- Review the course content and its references before it opens
- Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region
How institutions and experts take part
In the Academy LMS
- Course on the learning platform
- Intermediate, 4 topics
- Cohort group
- A community group for each cohort of learners
- Achievement
- Recorded on completion of the assessed work
Open now in this discipline
References
- Global Shield against Climate Risks, Global Shield against Climate Risks Announces New Partnership with Insurance Development Forum to Strengthen Climate and Disaster Risk Insurance Markets, 24 June 2026
- Ghesquiere and Mahul, Financial protection of the state against natural disasters: a primer, 2010
- Clarke and Dercon, Dull disasters? How planning ahead will make a difference, 2016
- Cummins, CAT bonds and other risk-linked securities: state of the market and recent developments, 2008
Hazards now in India
Flood water, active fires, heavy rain and smoke, beside where people live, over India.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Hazards now
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.
Hazards 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 · U.S. Geological SurveySources 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 H3 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 H3 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 H3 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 H3 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 H3 cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- MODIS and VIIRS atmosphere products, NASA LANCE and LAADS DAAC; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 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 H3 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 H3 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 H3 cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 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.
- Globe: MapLibre GL JS 6.9.1, BSD-3-Clause, © MapLibre contributors.
- 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.
- 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 (20 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
- Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
- Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
- Precipitation rate, daily mean: GPM IMERG, NASA GES DISC · 12 Oct 2026
- Aerosol optical depth, daily: VIIRS NOAA-20 Deep Blue AOD, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
How learning runs, as a process you can run
Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.
Frontier course · L3 advanced, programme courses and standards
Disaster risk finance: frontier methods
The methods, data, tools and studies that changed disaster risk finance between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.
- Level
- L3 Advanced
- Study time
- about 28 hours (planning estimate)
- Status
- Planned
- Prerequisites
- Disaster risk finance: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs
Why now
Catastrophe bond issuance reached record levels in 2024 and 2025, parametric covers spread through regional pools (CCRIF, ARC, PCRIC), and climate-resilient debt clauses that pause repayments after a disaster entered sovereign and development bank lending. CCRIF SPC, Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, 2025
Learning outcomes
- Explain what changed in disaster risk finance since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
- Reproduce risk layering on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
- Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
- Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice
Modules
- Risk layering
- Reserves, contingent credit, insurance and cat bonds by return period
- Basis risk in parametric design
- Pricing with catastrophe model output
- Sovereign instruments
- Regional risk pools
- Catastrophe bonds issued through the World Bank
- Climate-resilient debt clauses
- Pre-arranged action
- Linking finance to triggers and plans
- Payout speed and delivery
- Evaluation of protection gaps
- Global Shield partners with the Insurance Development Forum
- The Global Shield against Climate Risks and the Insurance Development Forum agreed to connect countries' requests for support with insurance and risk transfer expertise and to support local markets, analytics and supervision.
- Global Shield against Climate Risks, 24 June 2026
- Jamaica's catastrophe bond pays out after Hurricane Melissa
- A full US$150 million payout on Jamaica's 2024 World Bank catastrophe bond was confirmed nine days after Hurricane Melissa's October 2025 landfall; a new US$200 million bond covering four hurricane seasons followed in May 2026.
- World Bank, 1 June 2026
- Reproduction lab
- Extend the discipline's method with one frontier method and compare its results
- State the uncertainty and the limits of the result
- Peer review against a shared checklist
- Technology that helps and the risks it carries
- AI models, tokenisation and regulatory technology.
- Model risk, cyber accumulation, exposure to quantum attacks on cryptography, and concentration on third-party cloud providers.
Labs with Academy tools
- MethodLayering disaster risk: reserves for the frequent, insurance for the rare, and the cost of what is leftThe discipline's method on the discipline page, with its cited sources, worked through a documented case
- InstrumentLoss exceedance curveA faculty instrument on the faculty page, run on the faculty's digital twin data
- InstrumentTerm structureA faculty instrument on the faculty page, run on the faculty's digital twin data
- InstrumentExposure tableA faculty instrument on the faculty page, run on the faculty's digital twin data
- Twin builderDigital twin builderBuild the faculty's place in 3D, switch layers and read the credits and dates of each
- Map layerEarthquakes M4.5+, past week (USGS)An open map layer the Academy's licence register admits, read in the map tools
- Map layerSurface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar)An open map layer the Academy's licence register admits, read in the map tools
- Map layerRiver discharge forecast, 30 days with range (GloFAS via Open-Meteo)An open map layer the Academy's licence register admits, read in the map tools
- Research hubResearch hubToday's open data and publications in the faculty's subjects, filtered to this discipline
- Foundry roomTriggers room, NXS-AAPParametric triggers linked to feasible actions
- Foundry roomReadiness room, NXS-AAPFinancing readiness of early actions
Nexus Standards
Teaches
Relies on
- NS-1 The UNI and the artefact catalogue
- NS-16 UNI application profile (how articles, documents, code, data, APIs and interfaces carry the UNI)
- NRS-C1 Risk vocabulary and ontology
- NRS-C2 Risk assessment method
- NRS-C3 Hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity data
- NRS-C4 Risk data model, identifiers and exchange
- NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action
- NRS-C8 Evidence, uncertainty and provenance
Assessment
- 50%Method reproductionReproduce one frontier method on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
- 30%Study reviewA critical review of a 2024 to 2026 study: question, data, method, limits, what it changes
- 20%Peer reviewReview two other learners' reproductions against a shared checklist
Delivery
- Self-paced online, with the labs in the browser
- Cohort study over six to eight weeks, with a weekly lab review
- Co-delivered with a partner institution, inside its own courses
Partner on this course
- Co-teach a module and bring a current case from your work
- Host a cohort for your learners, with your own schedule and review
- Contribute a lab: a dataset your institution publishes openly, or a model
- Review the course content and its references before it opens
- Translate the course and adapt its cases to your region
How institutions and experts take part
In the Academy LMS
- Course on the learning platform
- Expert, 7 topics
- Cohort group
- A community group for each cohort of learners
- Achievement
- Recorded on completion of the assessed work
Open now in this discipline
References
- CCRIF SPC, Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility, 2025
- African Risk Capacity, ARC Group, 2025
- Insurance Development Forum, IDF publications, 2025
- Global Shield against Climate Risks, Global Shield against Climate Risks Announces New Partnership with Insurance Development Forum to Strengthen Climate and Disaster Risk Insurance Markets, 24 June 2026
- World Bank, Third Catastrophe Bond for Jamaica: Increased Cover following Hurricane Melissa, 1 June 2026
- Artemis, Catastrophe bond issuance breaks Q4 and full year records, market grows 24%: Report, 2 January 2026
- Global Shield against Climate Risks, Ghana receives first insurance payouts by the African Risk Capacity to help address impacts of recent droughts, 8 April 2025
- Ghesquiere and Mahul, Financial protection of the state against natural disasters: a primer, 2010
- Clarke and Dercon, Dull disasters? How planning ahead will make a difference, 2016
- Cummins, CAT bonds and other risk-linked securities: state of the market and recent developments, 2008
Courses of the programme in Disaster risk finance
Every course of the programme placed in this discipline.
How the mapping to the Nexus Standards is read
The Academy proposes how each discipline teaches toward the Nexus Standards; the mapping is open for public review. Bodies and standards are named so learners can find and apply their published work; the Academy teaches their use and links to the publisher, and no affiliation is implied.
Take part in the work
Start from who you are.
Questions, answers and key terms
Is the course free?
What does completing a course give me?
Where do the data and the places come from?
How do I take part beyond the course?
Key terms
Risk layering
Matching financing instruments to events of different frequency and severity.
Parametric trigger
A payout rule based on a measured hazard parameter rather than assessed loss.
Basis risk
The mismatch between a parametric payout and the actual loss.
Catastrophe bond
A security that transfers defined catastrophe risk to investors.
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.
Around Disaster risk finance: courses
Study disaster risk finance with us, or teach it
Every course is free and open. Institutions and experts can co-teach, host a cohort, contribute a lab or review a course before it opens.