Earth and Environmental Sciences
The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Illustrative: a fire front spreading fastest downwind over hill terrain, embers and the smoke plume
Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Earth and Environmental Sciences
The discipline covers land degradation, desertification, deforestation and land-use change, soil health and erosion, and the role of land in carbon, water and food systems.
The model
From a bare slope to a degraded hectare: how rain, slope and cover set soil loss, and soil loss a land decision
DataModelGateDecisionStandard it teachesStandard it relies onNeighbouring discipline
The model From a bare slope to a degraded hectare: how rain, slope and cover set soil loss, and soil loss a land decision
The subtopics its courses and labs teach.
Courses in development extend the scope to further subjects: Land degradation, soils and land tenure; Amazon and tropical forest risk.
For land managers, foresters, soil scientists, restoration planners and analysts of land-related risk who need to read a forest loss map, a soil carbon stock or a degradation indicator and know what it can support.
Each method is listed with what it assumes and where it fails.
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.
Land, forests and soils's own model, as a live chart: move each parameter and read how the outputs respond.
Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow land, forests and soils on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.
The boundaries, names and designations shown do not imply any judgement on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries. Countries: Natural Earth (public domain).
Select corners to build a signature, then hover a line to read what each sector gives and receives.
Signature
Biodiversity and its partners
Biodiversity gives pollination and soils to food (0.6), watershed regulation to water (0.5) and zoonotic spillover and medicines to health (0.4).
W · E · I · F · H · B
The Nexus Standards the discipline teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.
Nexus Standards at the AcademyThe Academy proposes how each discipline teaches toward the Nexus Standards; the mapping is open for review by the editors of the Nexus Standards.
Open scholarly sources searched with the subject terms of Land, forests and soils.
Search termsLand, forests and soils; Land degradation and desertification; Deforestation and land-use change; Soil health and erosion; Land tenure and land governance; Drylands and rangelandsDerived from the Risk Academy page on Land, forests and soils.
No source is enabled for live display on this site yet: the sources are listed for reference and none is queried. Once the publisher of record enables a source after its terms are reviewed, recent works are listed here. Metadata and links only: title, authors, venue, year, type, open-access status and licence as each source records them; works are listed for orientation, not reviewed or endorsed.
Research and preprints as they are published, by discipline, with the faculty's other tools.
The hub lists the newest research and preprints for Land, forests and soils, each with its source and date. Open the research hub
From the Academy's risk taxonomy: the discipline's own entries and those of its primary courses, with how many courses teach each.
Recent developments in land, forests and soils, each with its source; sources checked on 16 October 2026.
Courses for this discipline are in development; until they open, study it through the connected courses and open lessons below.
The courses from connected disciplines below also teach this field.
Each course has its primary discipline elsewhere and teaches this field as part of its scope.
From connected disciplines1 course open
| Lab | What you do in it | Courses using it |
|---|---|---|
| Map lab | Read hazard, exposure and boundaries on real maps | 2 |
| Exposure lab | Overlay people and assets with hazard footprints | 1 |
| GeoAI lab | Apply Earth observation and machine learning to open imagery | 1 |
| Aspect | In this area |
|---|---|
| Technology that helps | Earth observation and acoustic monitoring, environmental DNA and GeoAI. |
| Risk technology creates | The governance of biotechnology releases, and data sovereignty. |
Field platforms of the ecosystem where the subject is studied and applied.
Nexus Foundry system pages describe what each system and its rooms are designed to do; the courses teach the methods these systems apply.
Start with Foley, then Hansen, then Curtis.
Nexus 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.
The catalogue lists each course with its outcomes, labs, hours and level.