Illustrative: a transmission grid, its load flows and a cascading outage

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

Cities, housing and the built environment

The discipline covers how urban form, buildings, housing, mobility and services concentrate exposure, and how planning, design and municipal governance reduce it.

Map cities, housing and the built environment on a real place

01Model

The model, step by step

The model

From ground shaking to a retrofit decision: fragility curves and the benefit-cost ratio

DataModelGateDecisionStandard it teachesStandard it relies onNeighbouring discipline

6 steps
Benefit-cost ratio of the retrofit
0.97
Replacement value of the stock (million)
1,500
Probability of extensive damage, as built
39.2%
Expected loss, as built (million)
294.3
/

The model From ground shaking to a retrofit decision: fragility curves and the benefit-cost ratio

02Scope

What the discipline covers

The subtopics its courses and labs teach.

Cities, housing and the built environment: 1 primary courses open, 2 in preparation and 1 also taught here, across 9 subtopics and 6 connected disciplines. Courses: RAN-306 L2 open, RAN-320 L2 in preparation, RAN-337 L2 in preparation, RAT-209 L2 also taught here.
Cities, housing and the built environment at a glance
  • Open, 1
  • In preparation, 2
  • Also taught here, 1
  • Subtopics, 9
Course codes from the curriculum; study levels L1 to L4.
Courses
1 course open
Levels
L2 Intermediate
Labs
Exposure lab, Map lab, Geo quiz, Network lab, GeoAI lab
  • Urban growth and land use
  • Informal settlements
  • Buildings, codes and heat
  • Housing and affordability
  • Urban drainage and green-blue infrastructure
  • Urban utilities and services
  • Municipal risk governance
  • Real estate and construction risk
  • Urban mobility
03The discipline

The field and its scope

For planners, municipal engineers, housing officers, insurers and developers who need to measure how urban form and building stock concentrate exposure and to weigh codes, retrofit and land-use choices against each other.

04Measures

Quantities and units

05Methods

Methods and their limits

Each method is listed with what it assumes and where it fails.

06Debates

What the field debates

07Bodies and data

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.

08Simulator

Run the discipline's simulator

Cities, housing and the built environment's own model, as a live chart: move each parameter and read how the outputs respond.

09Maps

Maps and the globe for any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow cities, housing and the built environment 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).

10Nexus signature

How cities, housing and the built environment connects the sectors

Select corners to build a signature, then hover a line to read what each sector gives and receives.

Select corners · hover lines6 / 15 relations

Context

Infrastructure and its partners

Infrastructure gives pipes, dams and treatment works to water (0.6), transmission and fuel logistics to energy (0.6) and access to care to health (0.5).

W · E · I · F · H · B

Sectors
4 of 6
Relations
6 of 15
Coupling
0.46 share of total

Strongest relations in play

  • Energy → Infrastructure · power for transport and telecoms0.8
  • Water → Energy · cooling water and hydropower0.6
  • Infrastructure → Water · pipes, dams and treatment works0.6
  • Water → Health · drinking water and sanitation0.7
Teaching values for a typical city-region, not measurements for any place. Coupling is the summed strength of the relations in play, as a share of all fifteen.
11Nexus Standards

Nexus Standards it teaches and relies on

The Nexus Standards the discipline teaches toward, grouped by master standard, with the disciplines that teach each.

12Research hub

Research hub: papers, preprints and datasets

Open scholarly sources searched with the subject terms of Cities, housing and the built environment.

Search termsCities, housing and the built environment; Urban growth and land use; Informal settlements; Buildings, codes and heat; Housing and affordability; Urban drainage and green-blue infrastructureDerived from the Risk Academy page on Cities, housing and the built environment.

  • OpenAlexlisted for reference; not queried
  • Crossreflisted for reference; not queried
  • DataCitelisted for reference; not queried
  • Zenodolisted for reference; not queried
  • arXivlisted for reference; not queried
  • Europe PMClisted for reference; not queried
  • OpenAIRE Graphlisted for reference; not queried

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.

13Hub

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 Cities, housing and the built environment, each with its source and date. Open the research hub

14Methods and standards

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.

Hazard families

  1. Coastal flood and storm surge2 courses
  2. Flash and pluvial flood2 courses
  3. Critical infrastructure outage1 course
  4. Earthquake1 course
  5. Epidemic and pandemic disease1 course
  6. Extreme heat1 course
15What is changing now

What is changing now

Recent developments in cities, housing and the built environment, each with its source; sources checked on 16 October 2026.

16Courses

Courses in this discipline

Courses with this as their primary discipline.

17Also taught here

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.

From connected disciplinesIn development

  1. RAT-209Exposure and Vulnerability DataIn developmentTechnical, L2 Intermediate, 10 hours (estimate), primary discipline: Catastrophe, exposure and vulnerability modelling
18Labs

How the subject is practised in labs

19Technology in this area

How technology helps and what risk it brings

AspectIn this area
Technology that helpsDigital twins, sensors and robotics for inspection.
Risk technology createsCascading cyber-physical failure and vendor lock-in.
  • RAT-263 Digital Twins for Risk: Design, Validation and Limits In development
  • RAT-261 OT/ICS and Critical Infrastructure Cyber Resilience In development
  • RAS-407 Critical Infrastructure Interdependency and Resilience Engineering In development
20Achievements

Achievements in this discipline

21Pathways

Pathways that teach it

22Where this is practised

Where the subject is practised

  • The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI Canada)Cities and Built EnvironmentBuildings and heat, Green blue infrastructure, Housing and affordability, Informal settlements, Municipal governance interface, Transport and mobility, Urban growth and land, Urban utilities
  • Cities and built environment

Field platforms of the ecosystem where the subject is studied and applied.

23Practised in

The two Nexus Foundry systems where it is practised

  • Nexus FoundryEOP systemBuilt-up area, exposure and urban growth can be seen from orbitMaps room, Change room
  • GRIx systemUrban risk indicatorsData room

Nexus Foundry system pages describe what each system and its rooms are designed to do; the courses teach the methods these systems apply.

24Connected disciplines

Disciplines it depends on

25Across the ecosystem

Across the ecosystem

27References

Core references and where to begin

Start with Pelling, then Silva, then Kircher.

NRNexus Reports gateway · GW-ACADEMY

Contribute to Nexus Reports from this page.

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.

Risk Academy
Cities, housing and the built environment

Start with an open course

The catalogue lists each course with its outcomes, labs, hours and level.

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