Illustrative: plants and ports, the routes between them and goods moving along; one node is disrupted and its routes stall

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Course catalogue · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry

Cities and Infrastructure Systems

Transport, ports and logistics

Transport, ports and logistics, 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.

Core course Frontier course

The discipline

01Core course · L2 Intermediate

Transport, ports and logistics: foundations and practice

This area covers transport networks, ports, airports, logistics hubs and freight corridors, their exposure to hazards, accidents and disruption, and the role of transport in supply chains and emergency response.

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

It shows how latent airspace design and oversight weaknesses accumulate; safety management needs active review of routes, data and unresolved recommendations. National Transportation Safety Board, Systemic Failures Led to Midair Collision Over Potomac River in Washington, 28 January 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Define network criticality and the other key terms of the discipline and use them correctly in a written case
  2. Explain transport network vulnerability and ports and maritime infrastructure with a worked example and its source
  3. Apply the discipline's method to a documented case and explain each result with its source
  4. Analyse a named case against aviation and airports, stating evidence, date and limits

Modules

  1. Transport network vulnerability
    • Transport network vulnerability
    • Ports and maritime infrastructure
    • Aviation and airports
  2. Rail and road resilience
    • Rail and road resilience
    • Logistics hubs and freight corridors
    • Transport accidents and dangerous goods
  3. Cold chains
    • Cold chains
    • Chokepoints and rerouting
  4. Lab: the discipline's method
    • A closed chokepoint sends ships the long way round; extra miles at a sailing speed become extra days; extra days on every voyage absorb a share of the fleet, and the share of trade that used the passage decides whether the shortfall is a nuisance or a disruption.
    • Work the method through a documented case and explain each result
    • Read the method's sources and stated values

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X11 Transport safety and resilience
  • NRS-X4 Trade, transport and supply chains risk
  • NRS-H49 Hazard family: Transport accidents
  • NRS-H89 Hazard family: Transport network disruption
  • NRS-M10 Method fabric: Markets, trade and supply chains

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-C6 Systemic and cascading risk
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action

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

References

  1. National Transportation Safety Board, Systemic Failures Led to Midair Collision Over Potomac River in Washington, 28 January 2026
  2. Jenelius, Petersen and Mattsson, Importance and exposure in road network vulnerability analysis, 2006
  3. Verschuur, Koks and Hall, Port disruptions due to natural disasters: insights into port and logistics resilience, 2020
  4. Ducruet and Notteboom, The worldwide maritime network of container shipping, 2012
02Live map

Activity and hazards in the Caribbean

Night-time lights and population, the geography of production and markets, with floods and sea state, over the Caribbean.

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

Layers 2

Activity and hazards

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.

Activity and hazards, framed on the Caribbean.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 EONETSources 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 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 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
  • 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
  • GHRSST Level 4 MUR analyses, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; distributed by the NASA Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.DAAC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into H3 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 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.
  • 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).
  • 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 (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
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • Sea surface temperature anomaly: GHRSST MUR25, NASA JPL PO.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

03How learning runs

How learning runs, as a process you can run

Select a scenario and press Play: course, pathway, practice, faculty, cells and record.

04What is changing

Frontier course · L3 advanced, programme courses and standards

Transport, ports and logistics: frontier methods

The methods, data, tools and studies that changed transport, ports and logistics between 2024 and 2026, taught by reproducing them on open data.

Level
L3 Advanced
Study time
about 28 hours (planning estimate)
Status
Planned
Prerequisites
Transport, ports and logistics: foundations and practice; Working knowledge of a scripting language (Python or R) for the labs

Why now

It shows how latent airspace design and oversight weaknesses accumulate; safety management needs active review of routes, data and unresolved recommendations. National Transportation Safety Board, Systemic Failures Led to Midair Collision Over Potomac River in Washington, 28 January 2026

Learning outcomes

  1. Explain what changed in transport, ports and logistics since 2024 and cite the studies, data or rules behind each change
  2. Reproduce NTSB finds systemic failures behind Potomac midair collision on open data and state the uncertainty of the result
  3. Evaluate a 2024 to 2026 study: its question, data, method, limits and what it changes for practice
  4. Design an analysis that combines a frontier method with the faculty's instruments, and justify each choice

Modules

  1. NTSB finds systemic failures behind Potomac midair collision
    • The NTSB's final board meeting on the January 2025 collision near Reagan National Airport, which killed 67, attributed it to helicopter route placement near an approach path, failure to act on data and prior recommendations, and overreliance on visual separation.
    • It shows how latent airspace design and oversight weaknesses accumulate; safety management needs active review of routes, data and unresolved recommendations.
    • National Transportation Safety Board, 28 January 2026
  2. UN dangerous goods Model Regulations revised for new battery and hydrogen carriers
    • UNECE published the 24th revised edition of the UN Model Regulations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, adding provisions for hybrid lithium-ion and sodium-ion batteries and for liquid organic hydrogen carriers, among other amendments.
    • Modal rules for road, rail, sea and air derive from these provisions, so shippers and carriers of new energy technologies must track the changes.
    • UN Economic Commission for Europe, 15 September 2025
  3. 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
  4. Technology that helps and the risks it carries
    • Digital twins, sensors and robotics for inspection.
    • Cascading cyber-physical failure and vendor lock-in.

Labs with Academy tools

Nexus Standards

Teaches

  • NRS-X11 Transport safety and resilience
  • NRS-X4 Trade, transport and supply chains risk
  • NRS-H49 Hazard family: Transport accidents
  • NRS-H89 Hazard family: Transport network disruption
  • NRS-M10 Method fabric: Markets, trade and supply chains

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-C6 Systemic and cascading risk
  • NRS-C7 Early warning, triggers and anticipatory action

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, 4 topics
Cohort group
A community group for each cohort of learners
Achievement
Recorded on completion of the assessed work

References

  1. National Transportation Safety Board, Systemic Failures Led to Midair Collision Over Potomac River in Washington, 28 January 2026
  2. UN Economic Commission for Europe, UN Model Regulations Rev. 24 (2025), 15 September 2025
  3. Jenelius, Petersen and Mattsson, Importance and exposure in road network vulnerability analysis, 2006
  4. Verschuur, Koks and Hall, Port disruptions due to natural disasters: insights into port and logistics resilience, 2020
  5. Ducruet and Notteboom, The worldwide maritime network of container shipping, 2012
05Take part

Take part in the work

Start from who you are.

06Questions

Questions, answers and key terms

Is the course free?
Yes. Every course and learning material of Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium, is free to study, self-paced or with a cohort. Ordinary participation has no fee; paid work, internships and fellowships are separate arrangements.
What does completing a course give me?
A completion record: the course, its version, the date and what was assessed, private by default and shared by you. It stacks into discipline, department and programme achievements. A record states what was studied and assessed and does not certify competence; it is not a licence, a professional title or an employment status.
Where do the data and the places come from?
Every faculty teaches on a twin of a real place built from open data; each layer carries its provider, licence and date, and every result on the Academy states its source. Maps and figures are indicators for teaching, never an assessment of a place.
How do I take part beyond the course?
Form a competence cell of three to seven people, study a shared pathway, take a supervised assignment in the National Working Groups, or bring a cohort from your institution. For organisations.

Key terms

Term

Network criticality

How much a link or node matters to the performance of the whole transport network.

Term

Chokepoint

A narrow passage, such as a strait or canal, through which a large share of traffic flows.

Term

Intermodal transport

Moving freight in one unit, such as a container, across ships, rail and road.

Term

Modal shift

A change in the share of traffic carried by each transport mode.

ReportsContribute

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.

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