nexustandards.com/energy-infrastructure · 2 taught
Energy and Critical Infrastructure
NRS-H92 Ageing and degraded infrastructure; NRS-N6 Infrastructure risk and resilience
2standards1discipline
Illustrative: a truss under a moving load with members coloured by stress, a lattice tower swaying, or a geodesic dome
Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry · Department of Cities and Infrastructure Systems
Taught in the Systems stream
Reliability, safety and resilience engineering
Reliability and resilience engineering studies how engineered systems fail and how they are designed, tested and maintained to keep working or to recover quickly.
- Reliability analysis and failure rates
- Fault tree and event tree analysis
- Failure modes and effects analysis
- Safety cases and safety integrity
- Design for graceful degradation
- Redundancy, diversity and recovery
- Asset management and ageing infrastructure
- Inspection, maintenance and monitoring
02Maps
Maps and the globe for any place
Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow reliability, safety and resilience engineering 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).
03Live map
Hazards and exposure in Middle East and North Africa
Flood water, active fires and surface heat beside population and night-time lights, over Middle East and North Africa.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Hazards and exposure
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 and exposure, framed on Middle East and North Africa.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
- 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 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
- 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
- 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 (10 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
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- Aerosol optical depth, daily: VIIRS NOAA-20 Deep Blue AOD, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
04The subject
The subject, methods and measures and debates and bodies
The field and its scope
For reliability, safety and asset engineers, safety case authors and regulators who need to quantify failure rates, build fault and event trees, set safety integrity targets and plan inspection and maintenance of ageing assets.
Quantities and units
Methods and their limits
Each method is listed with what it assumes and where it fails.
What the field debates
Bodies that set practice, and the data they publish
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.
05The method
From a failure rate to a safety integrity level: how often a protection fails on demand
A component's failure rate and the share of its failures that stay hidden set how often a safety function is silently broken; the proof-test interval sets how long it stays broken; together they give the probability of failure on demand, the quantity that places the function in a safety integrity band.
Sources: Rausand, Barros and Hoyland, System Reliability Theory: Models, Statistical Methods, and Applications (2020); IEC 61508-1:2010, Functional safety of electrical, electronic and programmable electronic safety-related systems (2010); Leveson, Engineering a Safer World: Systems Thinking Applied to Safety (2012); Zio, Reliability engineering: old problems and new challenges (2009).
06Instrument
Reliability, safety and resilience engineering
- Open, 0
- In preparation, 1
- Also taught here, 6
- Subtopics, 8
Reliability, safety and resilience engineeringRegister
- 03CoursesIn preparation
- 04LevelsL3 Advanced
Risk Academy · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry
07Standards and evidence
Standards and evidence, research and evidence, profile, what is changing and learning
Nexus Standards it teaches and relies on
The Nexus Standards the discipline teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.
nexustandards.com/hazards · 2 taught
Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction
NRS-C14 Resilience capability and maturity; NRS-M4 Vulnerability, fragility and resilience
2standards1discipline
Nexus Standards at the AcademyThe Academy proposes how each discipline teaches toward the Nexus Standards; the mapping is open for public review.
Research and tools
Research and preprints as they are published, by discipline, with the faculty's other tools.
The hub lists the newest research and preprints for Reliability, safety and resilience engineering, each with its source and date. Open the research hub
Methods, frameworks and hazards
From the Academy's risk taxonomy: the discipline's own entries and those of its primary courses, with how many courses teach each.
Methods and practice
- Network and systems analysis1 course
Hazard families
- Critical infrastructure outage1 course
What is changing now
Recent developments in reliability, safety and resilience engineering, each with its source; sources checked on 16 October 2026.
Courses in this discipline
Courses for this discipline are in development; until they open, study it through the connected courses and open lessons below.
Courses with this primary disciplineIn preparation
- RAS-407Critical Infrastructure Interdependency and Resilience EngineeringIn preparationSystems, L3 Advanced, 12 hours (estimate)
Courses from connected disciplines that also teach this field
Each course has its primary discipline elsewhere and teaches this field as part of its scope.
How the subject is practised in labs
| Lab | What you do in it | Courses using it |
|---|---|---|
| Network lab | Build dependency graphs, find critical nodes, trace cascades | 4 |
| Map lab | Read hazard, exposure and boundaries on real maps | 3 |
| Exposure lab | Overlay people and assets with hazard footprints | 3 |
08Console
How Reliability, safety and resilience engineering is taught, as a process you can run
Press Play to run this process from this page's own data.
09Practice
Practice, learning and connections
How technology helps and what risk it brings
Achievements in this discipline
Pathways that teach it
Where the subject is practised
- The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI Canada)Systemic Risk ManagementResilience engineering
Field platforms of the ecosystem where the subject is studied and applied.
The three Foundry systems where it is practised
- FoundryNXS-LAB systemReliability tests as reproducible experimentsExperiments room
- NXS-APP systemDiagnosis and restoration after failureRecovery room
- NXS-GRX systemFailure propagation in coupled systemsCascades room
Foundry system pages describe what each system and its rooms are designed to do; the courses teach the methods these systems apply.
Across the ecosystem
10Take part
Take part in Infrastructure, Energy and Industry
Start from who you are.
11References
Core references and where to begin
Start with Rausand, then Zio, then Apostolakis.
12Questions
Questions, answers and key terms
Is study here 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 courses in reliability, safety and resilience engineering?
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
Reliability
The probability that a system performs its required function under stated conditions for a stated period.
Term
Fault tree
A diagram that traces how combinations of component failures lead to a defined top event.
Term
Failure modes and effects analysis
A structured review of how each component can fail and what follows from each failure.
Term
Safety case
A structured argument, supported by evidence, that a system is acceptably safe for a given use.
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.
Risk Academy
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Around Reliability, safety and resilience engineering
Reliability, safety and resilience engineering
Start with an open course
The catalogue lists each course with its outcomes, labs, hours and level.