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Illustrative: a block model of a city with water rising and falling through its streets, a heat island over its core, or the city growing

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

Department of Cities and Infrastructure Systems

The department studies the built fabric of a city as one system: buildings and their exposure, the road and rail network, the port and airport, the substations that feed them and the engineering that keeps them reliable.

See the disciplines Map Cities and Infrastructure Systems on a real place
01Map

How its disciplines connect

The map

DepartmentDisciplineNexus Standard taught here

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02Disciplines

Disciplines of the department

A filled mark is one open course in the discipline.

03Maps

Build a twin of any place

Search any place or open the world; the layers and generators follow department of Cities and Infrastructure Systems on the planet map, the globe and in 3D.

Wellington and its harbour: a flat plan of the faculty twin. Terrain 0 to 523 m; 83,815 buildings in the box; 5,085 footprints in the core, 2,796 with an estimated height; Roads 176 km; Rail 99 km; 57 substations; 4 port; 2 airport; 5 hospitals; 8 railway stations; 4 water works; 2 power plants, 202 MW. Contours every 100 metres from the elevation grid; buildings as counts per cell; roads and rail by class; lifeline assets as marks; power plants as marks.
Wellington and its harbour, New Zealand. Flat plan of the same data. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked; the numbers are the same either way.
  • Terrain 0 to 523 m
  • 83,815 buildings in the box
  • 5,085 footprints in the core, 2,796 with an estimated height
  • Roads 176 km
  • Rail 99 km
  • 57 substations
  • 4 port
  • 2 airport
  • 5 hospitals
  • 8 railway stations
  • 4 water works
  • 2 power plants, 202 MW
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. The 3D twin opens on devices that can draw it, once its data and code have been checked; the numbers are the same either way.

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).

04Live map

Urban signals in France

Night-time lights, population density, nitrogen dioxide and urban heat, over France.

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

Layers 2

Urban signals

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.

Urban signals, framed on France.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
  • 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.
  • Past year, daily temperature and sunshine (NASA POWER): These data were obtained from the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) POWER Project funded through the NASA Earth Science/Applied Science Program..
  • 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 (14 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
  • 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

05Console

How the Cities and Infrastructure Systems department teaches, as a process you can run

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

06Standards and evidence

Standards and evidence, research and evidence, learning, practice and connections

Nexus Standards it teaches and relies on

The Nexus Standards the department 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.

07Take part

Take part in Infrastructure, Energy and Industry

Start from who you are.

08Questions

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 department's courses?
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

Critical infrastructure and lifelines

This area covers the lifeline systems whose failure cascades across society: electricity, water and wastewater, transport, telecommunications, and health and emergency services.

Term

Cities, housing and the built environment

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

Term

Transport, ports and logistics

This area 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.

Term

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.

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 the Department of Cities and Infrastructure Systems

Department of Cities and Infrastructure Systems

Choose a discipline

Each discipline page sets out its scope, courses, labs, technology and key terms.

Open Critical infrastructure and lifelines Browse the course catalogue