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Illustrative: plants and ports, the routes between them and goods moving along; one node is disrupted and its routes stall

Risk Academy, led by the Nexus Consortium · Infrastructure, Energy and Industry · Department of Cities and Infrastructure Systems

Taught in the Nexus stream

Transport, ports and logistics

The discipline covers transport networks, ports, airports, logistics hubs and freight corridors, their exposure to hazards, accidents and disruption, and the role of transport in supply chains and emergency response.

01Scope

What the discipline covers

The subtopics its courses and labs teach.

  • Transport network vulnerability
  • Ports and maritime infrastructure
  • Aviation and airports
  • Rail and road resilience
  • Logistics hubs and freight corridors
  • Transport accidents and dangerous goods
  • Cold chains
  • Chokepoints and rerouting
02Maps

Maps and the globe for any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow transport, ports and logistics 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

Activity and hazards in the Caribbean

Night-time lights and population, the geography of production and markets, with floods and sea state, over the Caribbean.

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

Layers 2

Activity and hazards

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.

Activity and hazards, framed on the Caribbean.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
  • 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
  • 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 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
  • GHRSST Level 4 MUR analyses, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory; distributed by the NASA Physical Oceanography DAAC (PO.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.
  • 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).
  • 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 (5 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

  • Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • Population density, 2020: Population: CIESIN, Columbia University, Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (2018), NASA SEDAC, CC BY 4.0 · static
  • Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 2026
  • Sea surface temperature anomaly: GHRSST MUR25, NASA JPL PO.DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
  • True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026

04The subject

The subject, methods and measures and debates and bodies

The field and its scope

For port and airport operators, transport planners, freight and logistics managers and emergency planners who need to measure network vulnerability, chokepoint exposure and the cost of rerouting when a link or hub is lost.

05The method

From a closed strait to a lost sailing: how rerouting turns distance into days, cost and capacity

A closed chokepoint sends ships the long way round; extra miles at a sailing speed become extra days; extra days on every voyage absorb a share of the fleet, and the share of trade that used the passage decides whether the shortfall is a nuisance or a disruption.

Sources: Jenelius, Petersen and Mattsson, Importance and exposure in road network vulnerability analysis (2006); Verschuur, Koks and Hall, Port disruptions due to natural disasters: insights into port and logistics resilience (2020); Ducruet and Notteboom, The worldwide maritime network of container shipping (2012); Mattsson and Jenelius, Vulnerability and resilience of transport systems (2015).

06Instrument

Transport, ports and logistics

Transport, ports and logistics: 0 primary courses open, 1 in preparation and 0 also taught here, across 8 subtopics. Courses: RAN-315 L2 in preparation.RAN-315
Transport, ports and logistics at a glance
  • Open, 0
  • In preparation, 1
  • Subtopics, 8
Course codes from the curriculum; study levels L1 to L4.
Transport, ports and logisticsRegister
  1. 03CoursesIn preparation
  2. 04LevelsL2 Intermediate
  3. 05LabsNetwork lab, Map lab

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.

Nexus Standards at the AcademyThe Academy proposes how each discipline teaches toward the Nexus Standards; the mapping is open for public review.

08Console

How Transport, ports and logistics 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

10Take part

Take part in Infrastructure, Energy and Industry

Start from who you are.

11References

Core references and where to begin

Start with Mattsson, then Berdica, then Jenelius.

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 transport, ports and logistics?
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

Network criticality

How much a link or node matters to the performance of the whole transport network.

Term

Chokepoint

A narrow passage, such as a strait or canal, through which a large share of traffic flows.

Term

Intermodal transport

Moving freight in one unit, such as a container, across ships, rail and road.

Term

Modal shift

A change in the share of traffic carried by each transport mode.

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
Transport, ports and logistics

Prepare with a related course

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