Illustrative: branching futures, each branch weighted by its probability

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Health and Society · Department of Human Development, Work and Social Policy

Automation and jobs, reskilling, platform work, occupational safety and heat

Work, skills and occupational safety

This field studies work as a source and a carrier of risk.

01Scope

What the discipline covers

The subtopics its courses and labs teach.

Courses
In preparation
Levels
In development
Labs
In development
  • Automation and jobs
  • Labour market change
  • Lifelong learning and reskilling
  • Platform and digital work
  • Occupational safety and health
  • Heat stress at work
  • Work and social protection
  • Workforce planning

Courses in development extend the scope to one further subject: Workforce and future-of-work risk.

02Maps

Build a twin of any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow work, skills and occupational safety on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.

Delhi and its National Capital Territory core: a flat plan of the faculty twin. Terrain 191 to 315 m; 950 hospitals; 26,073,018 people in the box, 2020; Population density, GPW v4.11 (2020): read live when the 3D twin opens; Air quality, Copernicus CAMS via Open-Meteo (hourly, 5 days): read live when the 3D twin opens; Nitrogen dioxide column, TROPOMI (Sentinel-5P): read live when the 3D twin opens; Surface air temperature, AIRS (daily, day): read live when the 3D twin opens; Urban heat island, summer daytime 2013: read live when the 3D twin opens; Built-up and settlement extent, HBASE 2010: read live when the 3D twin opens. Contours every 50 metres from the elevation grid; people per cell, worldpop 2020 as four classes per cell (edges 4,474, 14,627, 25,652); hospitals as marks.
Delhi and its National Capital Territory core, India. Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the WorldPop count grid as cells, the mapped hospitals and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.
  • Terrain 191 to 315 m
  • 950 hospitals
  • 26,073,018 people in the box, 2020
  • Population density, GPW v4.11 (2020): read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Air quality, Copernicus CAMS via Open-Meteo (hourly, 5 days): read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Nitrogen dioxide column, TROPOMI (Sentinel-5P): read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Surface air temperature, AIRS (daily, day): read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Urban heat island, summer daytime 2013: read live when the 3D twin opens
  • Built-up and settlement extent, HBASE 2010: read live when the 3D twin opens
Credits and dates per layer are listed under the stage. Relief in the twin is exaggerated ×1.5 for legibility.

Drag to move, right drag or Shift with a drag to turn and tilt, Ctrl with the wheel to zoom. Keyboard: arrows move, Shift with arrows turn and tilt, + and – zoom, 0 resets, V steps through the views, Escape clears.

Flat plan of the same data: relief as contours from the inline grid, the WorldPop count grid as cells, the mapped hospitals and the numbers below. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked.

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

People and exposure in Ukraine

Population density, night-time lights, air quality, heat and floods, over Ukraine.

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

Layers 2

People and exposure

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.

People and exposure, framed on Ukraine.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
  • 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
  • OMI nitrogen dioxide (Aura) and OMPS aerosol index (Suomi NPP), NASA; distributed by the NASA GES DISC; imagery via NASA GIBS. 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
  • 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).
  • Air quality forecast, 5 days, PM2.5 (CAMS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service information 2026.
  • 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 (7 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

  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Nitrogen dioxide, lower atmosphere column: OMI Aura, NASA GES DISC · 10 Oct 2026
  • Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026

04The subject

The subject, methods and measures and debates and bodies

The field and its scope

For workforce planners, safety practitioners and labour market analysts who must anticipate how tasks change, protect workers from physical and organisational hazards, and build skill systems that keep pace.

05The method

From a wet bulb reading to hours lost: heat stress, work capacity and the rest schedule

Wet bulb globe temperature and the metabolic rate of the task together set the share of each hour a worker can safely work; multiplied by the hot days of a year and the size of the outdoor workforce, that share becomes hours and full-time jobs lost, and the rest schedule is the control that spends them deliberately.

Sources: Kjellstrom, Holmer and Lemke, Workplace heat stress, health and productivity: an increasing challenge for low and middle-income countries during climate change (2009); Kjellstrom and others, Heat, human performance, and occupational health: a key issue for the assessment of global climate change impacts (2016); International Labour Organization, Working on a warmer planet: the effect of heat stress on productivity and decent work (2019); ISO 7243:2017, Ergonomics of the thermal environment, assessment of heat stress using the WBGT index (2017).

06At a glance

At a glance, with 5 related topics

Work, skills and occupational safety at a glance

risksacademy.comhealth-societydiscipline

Work, skills and occupational safety: 0 primary courses open, 1 in preparation and 1 also taught here, across 8 subtopics. Courses: RAN-352 L2 in preparation, RAT-221 L2 also taught here.L1L2L3L4Also
Work, skills and occupational safety at a glance
  • Open, 0
  • In preparation, 1
  • Also taught here, 1
  • Subtopics, 8
Course codes from the curriculum; study levels L1 to L4.
Twin builderBuild a twin of any placeWorked example: Delhi and its National Capital Territory core · 5 generators · 11 layers · 3 instruments
07Console

How Work, skills and occupational safety is taught, as a process you can run

Press Play to run this process from this page's own data.

08Practice

Practice, learning and connections

How technology helps and what risk it brings

AspectIn this area
Technology that helpsDigital public infrastructure and digital identity.
Risk technology createsExclusion, surveillance and the automation of work.
  • RAN-350 Digital Public Infrastructure: Safeguards and Resilience In development
  • RAN-352 Workforce Risk and the Future of Work In development
  • RAN-369 Autonomous Vehicles, Drones and Uncrewed Systems Risk In development
09Take part

Take part in Health and Society

Start from who you are.

10References

Core references and where to begin

Start with Autor, then Acemoglu, then Arntz.

11Questions

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 work, skills and occupational safety?
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

Task exposure

The share of a job's tasks that technology could perform or change.

Term

Reskilling

Learning new skills to move into a different job or role.

Term

Occupational health and safety management system

A framework for managing workplace health and safety risks, such as ISO 45001.

Term

Platform work

Paid work organised through online platforms.

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
Work, skills and occupational safety

Prepare with a related course

Open courses in connected disciplines teach the methods this discipline will build on.

Risk Academy

Courses · practice · credentials

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Our articles, maps and twins are free to read and free to republish. Readers and partners keep it that way.

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Who funds us

Risk Academy is a not-for-profit institution. To ask who funds a piece of work, use the funding questions form.

Independence

Editors and the expert reviewers named on each article decide what we publish. Funders and partners do not review or approve articles before publication.

Licence

Articles: CC BY 4.0. Figures, maps, twins and data: CC BY 4.0. Other uses: ask through the permissions form.