Illustrative: two backbones and their base pairs, the major and minor grooves, a reading frame travelling along the strand
Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Faculty
Faculty of Health and Society
Risk reaches people through their lungs, their work, their income and their rights: an outbreak doubles in a crowded cell, a hospital network has no surge capacity, a transition takes away a livelihood without remedy.
How its disciplines connect
The map
DepartmentDisciplineNexus Standard taught here
Build a twin of any place
Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow the faculty's subjects on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.
- 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
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).
Environmental exposure in India
Haze, nitrogen dioxide, dust, surface heat by day and night, and where people live, over India.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 2
Environmental 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.
Environmental exposure, 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 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
- 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
- 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
- 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
- MERRA-2 reanalysis, NASA Global Modeling and Assimilation Office; 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
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- Past year, daily temperature (ERA5 via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change 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 (12 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
- Aerosol optical depth, daily: VIIRS NOAA-20 Deep Blue AOD, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
- Land surface temperature, day, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
- Nitrogen dioxide, lower atmosphere column: OMI Aura, NASA GES DISC · 10 Oct 2026
- Surface dust PM2.5, monthly mean: MERRA-2, NASA GMAO / GES DISC · July 2026
- Land surface temperature, night, 8-day composite: VIIRS NOAA-20 Level 3, 8-day, NASA LANCE · 14 Sep 2026
- Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
- Active fires and thermal anomalies: VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS), NASA LANCE FIRMS · 13 Oct 2026
- Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
From a first case to a full ward: how an outbreak's numbers turn into hospital load
Two numbers set the shape of an outbreak, the reproduction number and the generation time; together they give the growth rate, the peak and the share of a population infected, and the hospital sees that peak through its admission rate against the beds it has.
Sources: Kermack and McKendrick, A contribution to the mathematical theory of epidemics (1927); Wallinga and Lipsitch, How generation intervals shape the relationship between growth rates and reproductive numbers (2007); WHO, Pandemic influenza severity assessment (PISA): a WHO guide (2017); WHO Global Health Observatory, hospital beds per 10,000 population (2026-10-17).
Departments and their disciplines
Each card names the department's disciplines and its open courses.
Disciplines of the faculty
Each discipline once, in its department.
How Health and Society is organised, as a process you can run
Press Play to run this process from this page's own data.
How health and Society connects the sectors
Select corners to build a signature, then hover a line to read what each sector gives and receives.
Signature
Health and its partners
Health gives workforce for operations to infrastructure (0.3), farm labour to food (0.3) and utility workforce to water (0.2).
W · E · I · F · H · B
- Sectors
- 4 of 6
- Relations
- 6 of 15
- Coupling
- 0.42 share of total
Strongest relations in play
- Water → Food · irrigation0.8
- Food → Health · nutrition0.7
- Infrastructure → Water · pipes, dams and treatment works0.6
- Water → Health · drinking water and sanitation0.7
Standards and evidence, with 5 related topics
Nexus Standards the faculty teaches toward
The Nexus Standards areas whose standards the faculty's disciplines teach toward, with the number of standards and disciplines in each.
Where the field is moving
Emerging areas, the technologies changing practice and the bodies whose work sets the field's methods.
What is changing now
The newest developments cited on the faculty's discipline pages, sources checked on 16 October 2026.
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 11 disciplines, each with its source and date. Open the research hub
Public health emergencies and epidemics, Health systems and health care resilience, Biotechnology, biosecurity and neurotechnology, Epidemic modelling and forecasting, One Health, zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance, Pollution and environmental health, Climate and health, Human development, poverty and inequality, Just transition, social and human rights risk, Work, skills and occupational safety, Mental health and psychosocial risk
Where to start, and where it leads
The faculty's entry course, then its flagship pathways and the Academy flagship in Nexus-Based Risk Management.
Courses of the faculty
Courses whose primary discipline is in this faculty.
Where these subjects are practised
Learning and connections
Labs used in the faculty's courses
| Lab | What you do in it | Courses using it |
|---|---|---|
| Map lab | Read hazard, exposure and boundaries on real maps | 5 |
| Network lab | Build dependency graphs, find critical nodes, trace cascades | 4 |
| Exposure lab | Overlay people and assets with hazard footprints | 2 |
Programmes that span faculties
Each programme joins disciplines from more than one faculty under an institute of the Academy, and appears on every faculty it spans.
Institutes that convene the faculty
Across the ecosystem
Take part in Health and Society
Start from who you are.
Questions, answers and key terms
Is study here free?
What does completing a course give me?
Where do the data and the places come from?
How do I take part beyond the faculty's courses?
Key terms
Faculty of Health and Society
The faculty studies risk as people experience it, in their health, environment, livelihoods, work and rights.
Department
A body of related disciplines within the Faculty of Health and Society, with its own courses and pathways.
Primary discipline
The discipline a course mainly teaches; a course may also teach up to two other disciplines.
Exposure
The people or assets within the reach of a hazard or a pollutant, counted from a population grid; not the same as those harmed.
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 the Faculty of Health and Society
Start in one department
Each department lists its disciplines, courses and pathways; each discipline its scope, labs, technology and key terms.