GRF · Disaster and Crisis Governance
Disaster and Crisis Governance
Public and private institutional arrangements for crisis readiness, disaster governance and whole-of-society coordination. Disaster and Crisis Governance is an established platform of The Global Risks Forum.
- STEM methods
- 3
- Canonical methods this field applies
- Topics
- 8
- Subject pages in the field
- Counterparts
- 12
- Platforms in shared fields across the network
- Report series
- 2
- Reports series it contributes to
The order things happen in.
- 01QuestionNational, regional or institutional priority
- 02EvidenceSTEM foundation of the platform
- 03BuildFoundry
- 04OrganiseNexus ecosystem
- 05TestUniverse (independent site)
- 06PublishReports
- 07DecideCompetent authorities and institutions, through NXS-RLS (participants, agreements and handoffs)
- 08RenewCorrections and the next annual agenda
How work moves in this field.
A question becomes evidence, a governed build, an organised community, a controlled test, a reviewed publication and, finally, a decision taken by the competent authority under its own rules.
- Question Universe National, regional or institutional priority. Question in Disaster and Crisis Governance
- Evidence Foundry STEM foundation of the platform. Evidence in Disaster and Crisis Governance
- Build Foundry Foundry. Build in Disaster and Crisis Governance
- Organise Universe Nexus ecosystem. Organise in Disaster and Crisis Governance
- Test Universe Universe (independent site). Test in Disaster and Crisis Governance
- Publish Reports Reports. Publish in Disaster and Crisis Governance
- Decide Competent authority Competent authorities and institutions, through NXS-RLS. Decide in Disaster and Crisis Governance
- Renew Universe Corrections and the next annual agenda. Renew in Disaster and Crisis Governance
Each step of the cycle in the pillar it runs in; the decision stays with the competent authority, outside the programme.
- Labs
- Foundry
- Universe
- Nexus Standards
- Reports
- Risk Academy
- Competent authority (outside the programme)
Multi-agency coordination board.
The screen a team would use to follow this field: its measures, states and decisions. Names are examples and values are illustrative.
Multi-agency coordination board
National crisis centre · Exercise EX-90
Who leads what
| Warning | Meteorological service | Civil protection | Clear | Active |
| Evacuation | Municipality | Police | Overlap | Tasked |
| Shelter | Social services | Volunteer society | Clear | Active |
| Public information | Crisis coordinator | All | Gap | Unassigned |
Exercise log
- 09:00STAExercise start
- 09:44WRNRed warning issued
- 10:35GAPTwo agencies issue conflicting advice
- 11:00FIXSingle spokesperson named
After-action items
- AA-1Assign public information lead in lawPolicy owner68 d
- AA-2Shared situation picture between agenciesCrisis centre47 d
The questions this field works on.
Disaster authority and mandates
Competent authorities and legal roles.
TopicMulti agency coordination
Cross-institution cooperation under stress.
TopicEarly warning governance
Responsibility for decisions and warnings.
TopicCrisis communications
Public trust and accessible information.
TopicBusiness continuity governance
Operator and public coordination.
TopicRecovery governance
Reconstruction, funding and accountability.
TopicLocal and community governance
Community involvement and inclusion.
TopicSimulation and after action
Exercise governance and learning.
Compare instruments: rules, incentives and information.
Three families of instruments side by side against the baseline, each with its own lag and adoption speed, under the coverage and compliance you set; effect sizes are teaching values to replace with evidence. Scenario: named assumptions about the future, not a forecast. The map on this page shows The Caribbean; the model itself is not tied to a place.
Controls
- Baseline trend of the outcome
- 2.0% a year
- Coverage of the instrument
- 70%
- Compliance
- 75%
- Effect size, against the teaching value
- 100%
- Years ahead
- 20 years
Readouts
- Largest reduction at the horizon
- Regulation
- Its reduction against the baseline
- 21%
Numbers, methods and sources
| Year | Baseline | Regulation | Economic incentive | Information and capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 100.0 | 99.5 | 98.8 | 99.1 |
| 1 | 102.0 | 101.2 | 100.1 | 99.8 |
| 2 | 104.0 | 102.5 | 101.1 | 99.9 |
| 3 | 106.1 | 103.5 | 101.6 | 100.0 |
| 4 | 108.2 | 103.7 | 101.8 | 100.7 |
| 5 | 110.4 | 103.2 | 101.7 | 102.1 |
| 6 | 112.6 | 102.0 | 101.6 | 103.9 |
| 7 | 114.9 | 100.4 | 101.6 | 105.9 |
| 8 | 117.2 | 99.2 | 102.1 | 108.0 |
| 9 | 119.5 | 98.6 | 102.9 | 110.1 |
| 10 | 121.9 | 98.9 | 104.2 | 112.3 |
| 11 | 124.3 | 99.7 | 105.7 | 114.5 |
| 12 | 126.8 | 101.1 | 107.4 | 116.8 |
| 13 | 129.4 | 102.7 | 109.4 | 119.2 |
| 14 | 131.9 | 104.5 | 111.4 | 121.6 |
| 15 | 134.6 | 106.5 | 113.5 | 124.0 |
| 16 | 137.3 | 108.5 | 115.7 | 126.5 |
| 17 | 140.0 | 110.7 | 118.0 | 129.0 |
| 18 | 142.8 | 112.9 | 120.4 | 131.6 |
| 19 | 145.7 | 115.1 | 122.8 | 134.2 |
| 20 | 148.6 | 117.4 | 125.2 | 136.9 |
Methods
- Tools of government Hood (1983), The Tools of Government, Macmillan
- Carrots, sticks and sermons Bemelmans-Videc, Rist and Vedung (1998), Transaction
- Diffusion of innovations Rogers (2003), Diffusion of Innovations, Free Press
- Uncertainty fan (parameter Monte Carlo) Spiegelhalter, Pearson and Short (2011), Visualising uncertainty about the future, Science 333
- One-at-a-time sensitivity (tornado) Saltelli and others (2008), Global Sensitivity Analysis: The Primer, Wiley
Data
The model runs on the teaching values set by the controls. To calibrate it for a place, read it against these admitted layers and series, which this page’s map can draw:
- Borders Natural Earth
- Cities Natural Earth
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Disaster and Crisis Governance in Foundry
- Tested at Disaster and Crisis Governance in Universe
- Codified in Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction in Standards
- Published in Disaster and Crisis Governance in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Hazards, Disasters and Resilience in Academy
The areas of disaster and crisis this platform takes on.
Disaster and Crisis Governance studies how institutions hold authority and act together before, during and after a disaster or crisis: emergency law and mandates, coordination between agencies, early warning, public communication, continuity of services, recovery and the exercises that test them. Its pages set out how crisis governance holds or breaks, the records that show capacity, the methods that test it and the office holders who decide. Global Risks Forum convenes the dialogue; it is not an emergency service and does not direct any response.
Authority and mandates
Emergency legislation, declarations, delegated powers and the limits and review of exceptional authority.
Multi-agency coordination
Incident command, coordination centres, the humanitarian cluster system and the links between civil, military and voluntary actors.
Early warning governance
Who issues warnings, on what authority, through which channels, and who acts on them before an event.
Crisis communication
Public warning and information in a crisis, trusted messengers, rumour management and accessible formats.
Continuity
Business and public service continuity, impact tolerances and the governance of essential services under disruption.
Recovery governance
Recovery authorities, damage assessment, reconstruction standards, finance and the principle of building back better.
Local and community roles
Municipal emergency management, community organisations, volunteers and the resources that reach the local level.
Exercises and learning
Simulation exercises, after-action reviews and the routines that turn lessons identified into lessons applied.
From mandate to evaluation, by pillar.
The steps an instrument takes from mandate to evaluation, each with the pillar that runs it, and the decisions that stay with the authority. Teaching model with stated illustrative values, not a prediction. The map on this page shows The Caribbean; the model itself is not tied to a place.
- Mandate and problem framing Competent authority (outside the programme)
A competent authority frames the problem and the mandate under its own rules. Howlett, Ramesh and Perl (2009) - Evidence and system model Foundry
The system is modelled with its feedbacks, data and stated limits. OECD (2014), principle 2 - Options appraised with scenarios Foundry
Instruments are compared under scenarios, with uncertainty shown. Hood (1983) - Exercise with stakeholders Universe
The options are tested in an exercise with those who would implement and bear them. OECD (2014), principle 3 - Standard or guidance drafted Nexus Standards
What works is codified as a standard or guidance, open to comment. Nexus Standards process - Decision by the authority Competent authority (outside the programme)
The authority decides, outside the programme, with the evidence on record. Howlett, Ramesh and Perl (2009) - Capacity and training Risk Academy
Those who implement are trained on the decided instrument and its data. Sendai Framework (2015), priority 2 - Monitoring and public report Reports
Indicators are published with sources, limits and corrections. OECD (2014), principle 5 - Evaluation and revision Nexus Standards
Results return to the standard and the model: the cycle closes. Howlett, Ramesh and Perl (2009)
Methods
- Policy cycle Howlett, Ramesh and Perl (2009), Studying Public Policy, Oxford University Press
- Governance of critical risks OECD (2014), Recommendation of the Council on the Governance of Critical Risks
- Layered drawing of directed graphs Sugiyama, Tagawa and Toda (1981), IEEE SMC 11
Across the six pillars, led by Nexus Consortium
- Experiments Labs
- Built in Disaster and Crisis Governance in Foundry
- Tested at Disaster and Crisis Governance in Universe
- Codified in Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction in Standards
- Published in Disaster and Crisis Governance in Reports
- Taught in Faculty of Hazards, Disasters and Resilience in Academy
What Disaster and Crisis Governance does.
Disaster and crisis governance is the set of laws, mandates and arrangements through which institutions prepare for, respond to and recover from disasters and crises. Global Risks Forum’s platform compares emergency powers, coordination, early warning, communication, continuity, recovery and learning, and names who holds each decision. It is not an emergency service.
Its community
Crisis governance scholars; emergency leaders; public institutions; humanitarian policy experts.
Its methods
Institutional readiness review; coordination analysis; controlled exercise learning.
Its outputs
Crisis governance briefs; coordination exercises; recovery governance cases.
Exercise a cascade in Disaster and Crisis Governance with the people who decide.
Assembled from the Nexus Standards area profile Early warning and anticipatory action: the hazards it names, the systems and communities that carry the loss, the controls and institutions that dampen it and the data that observe it. Pick an initiating event and step through the cascade to see where mandates meet and which decisions fall to whom. The Map view places the run on an example geography with open data. Every weight is a stated assumption. An exercise for dialogue, not a forecast, an assessment or a position. To model a place of your own choosing, open the full System Builder.
Hazards
- Ice-jam flood
- Tropical cyclone
- Heatwave
- HIV epidemic
- Storm surge (set off downstream)
- Intense rainfall (set off downstream)
- River flood (set off downstream)
- Flash flood (set off downstream)
- Dangerous surf (set off downstream)
- Widespread power outage (set off downstream)
- Mass displacement (set off downstream)
- Coastal flood (set off downstream)
- Extreme fire weather (set off downstream)
- Wildfire (set off downstream)
- Heat-driven grid stress (set off downstream)
- Agricultural drought (set off downstream)
- Flash drought (set off downstream)
- Snow drought (set off downstream)
Systems and couplings
Controls
NS-0Constitution and principlesNS-3Risk record UNIs (grammar, legacy crosswalk, allocation authority)NS-9Contextual UNIs (deployments, instances, programme instances)NS-10Policies and clauses (machine-readable obligations: definition, binding, evaluation and enforcement)NS-11Verification and monitoring (evidence, attestations, zero-trust conformance observation)NRS-C7Early warning, triggers and anticipatory actionNRS-S9System profile: NXS-AAP (Anticipatory action and triggers)NRS-H117Hazard family: Social cohesion and atrocity risk (NHS-1 soc.cohesion)NRS-H83Hazard family: Health system capacity failure (NHS-1 health.system)NRS-H98Hazard family: Agentic AI acting at scale (NHS-1 tech.ai-agentic)NRS-H22Hazard family: Solar-terrestrial storms (NHS-1 space.solar-storm)
Observation
- NWS API active alerts (CAP 1.2 as GeoJSON) (listed for reference)
- GloFAS global flood forecasts and reanalysis (listed for reference)
- ECMWF open data (IFS and AIFS real-time forecasts) (listed for reference)
- CHIRPS quasi-global gridded precipitation (listed for reference)
- Number of countries that have multi-hazard early warning systems
- Number of countries that have multi-hazard monitoring and forecasting systems
- Number of people per 100,000 covered by early warning information through local governments or national dissemination mechanisms
- Number of countries with accessible, understandable, usable and relevant disaster risk information and assessment
Example geography
- Southeast Asia: 51 hexagonal cells
- Surface water through cloud, 30 m (OPERA DSWx-S1 radar), NASA GIBS
- Rain rate, last half hour (IMERG), NASA GIBS
- Surface air temperature, daytime (AIRS), NASA GIBS
- Night lights tonight, outages (VIIRS Day/Night Band), NASA GIBS
Disasters test institutions as much as infrastructure.
Hazards become disasters when they meet exposed people and assets and institutions that cannot act in time. Many of the worst outcomes in past disasters came from unclear authority, poor coordination and slow decisions rather than from a lack of knowledge about the hazard.
Disaster risk is governed through a dense web of institutions: national disaster management agencies, line ministries, local governments, emergency services, infrastructure operators, humanitarian organisations, businesses and community groups. Each has its own mandate, budget and chain of command. In normal times they work separately. In a major disaster they must act together, quickly and under uncertainty, often while their own staff and systems are affected.
Modern crises rarely respect institutional boundaries. A storm can cut power, flood hospitals, close ports and disrupt telecommunications at once; a pandemic can strain health systems, supply chains, schools and public finances together; a cyber attack can halt services that several agencies depend on. Each of these demands decisions that cross sectors and levels of government, and each exposes gaps where no one has clear authority.
Governance failures cascade. When a warning is issued without a clear decision on evacuation, people stay; when agencies use incompatible information systems, resources are duplicated in one place and absent in another; when recovery funding arrives without accountability, rebuilding recreates the same risks. Strengthening governance means clarifying mandates, rehearsing coordination, communicating in ways people trust and learning honestly after each event.
Why now: the Sendai Framework (2015 to 2030) enters its final years, the UN Early Warnings for All initiative aims at universal coverage by 2027, and compound events keep testing coordination between agencies. The platform is designed to convene the institutions that hold crisis duties, run coordination exercises in Universe with independent evaluation, and feed reviewed after-action findings to the Scenario and Stress-Test series of Reports.
Coupled risk, applied response.
The sectors a policy on urban flood has to coordinate: a choice in one ministry lands in the others.
Choose a context
Sectors · Urban floodStress
Pillars · Urban floodKPI
In this contextDependence or handoff, heavier is strongerOutside this context
Programme yearAll phases
Context
Urban flood
Flooded streets take out substations, pumping stations and clinic access together; drinking water fails when power does.
W · E · I · F · H · B
Risk
- Sectors
- 4 of 6
- Relations
- 6 of 15
- Coupling
- 0.46 share of total
Hover a corner, a line or a row to trace it across both sides.
Route
Applied to urban flood
L · F · U · S · R · A
Response
- Pillars
- 5 of 6
- Handoffs
- 11 of 18
- Loops
- 8 closed
Expected value
- What is at stake
- $390Ba year at least, in infrastructure disruption costs to households and firms in low- and middle-income countriesWorld Bank, Lifelines, 2019
- Return on resilience
- 4 : 1benefit to costWorld Bank, Lifelines, 2019
- Avoided loss
- 30%less damage with 24 hours’ warning of a storm or heatwaveGlobal Commission on Adaptation, Adapt Now, 2019
Hover a pillar, a line or a row to read how it is applied.
A: a teaching cascade (shock 0.6, gain 0.35, four rounds) over teaching values for a typical city-region, not measurements. B: illustrative applications and the KPI each pillar answers for; values are published benchmarks, cited, not forecasts. Open events: NASA EONET, live.
Convening the people who govern crises.
The platform brings evidence and practitioners together so that institutions can examine their arrangements before a crisis tests them.
Institutional arrangements
Structured dialogue on mandates, decision rights and coordination arrangements, drawing on evidence from past events and research.
How agencies work together
Examination of how information, resources and authority flow between institutions, and where they stall.
Controlled exercises
Design and review of governance exercises, with after-action learning shared at a public-safe level.
GRF convenes and governs programmes. It does not regulate, finance, procure or certify, and hosting or sponsorship confers no authority over findings. The Consortium is not an emergency service. In an emergency, follow the instructions of your local authorities and emergency services.
How Disaster and Crisis Governance is governed: instruments, mandates and commitments.
The instruments, mandates, actors and accountability arrangements a policymaker, diplomat or development agency works with, citing the agreements that set them. Structures follow the frameworks named. Any state or progress drawn is illustrative, not a record.
Mandates and agreements over time
The agreements that set mandates and commitments on Disaster and Crisis Governance, from adoption to their current horizon.
- 2015Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk ReductionUNDRR
- 20152030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development GoalsUnited Nations
- 2030Horizon of the 2030 Agenda and the Sendai FrameworkUnited Nations
Implementation by country
How a commitment on Disaster and Crisis Governance is traced from adoption to review, country by country.
| Country (example) | Commitment | National instrument | Budget line | Indicator reported | Review |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Country A | In place | In place | In preparation | In preparation | No record |
| Country B | In place | In preparation | In preparation | No record | No record |
| Country C | In preparation | No record | No record | No record | No record |
- Commitment traced
- Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction
- Where states report
- national reports to the body that holds the agreement
- Read with
- the country’s own plan and its review record
Science and finance counterparts at the other institutions.
The platform applies decision analysis under uncertainty, policy, institutional and decision science and optimisation and operations research, listed on the platform STEM foundation. It draws on the Foundry systems NXS-NST (civilian common operating picture), NXS-EWS (multi-hazard monitoring and warning), NXS-AAP and NXS-HUB (knowledge, records and learning).
The hazard and engineering science sits at The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI), with Disaster Resilience and Recovery, Climate and Hazards, Critical Infrastructure, Cybersecurity and Digital Resilience and Cities and Built Environment. Global Risks Alliance (GRA) builds shared financial-sector understanding of disaster costs at Disaster Risk Finance, Reinsurance and Catastrophe, Public Finance and Sovereign Debt and Development Finance Nexus, without advising on or arranging any transaction. See counterparts across the Consortium.
A multi-agency crisis exercise is the platform’s theme in the Universe programme, which GRF governs, and its learning is designed to feed the Universe Annual Synthesis and the Evidence Brief series of Reports.
Hazards now in the Caribbean.
Flood water, population density and active fires over the Caribbean, from NASA GIBS. Each layer carries its own date.
The interactive map needs JavaScript; the layer list and sources are below.
Layers 3
Hazards now, for this page
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds leave gaps)
- Source
- VIIRS Global Flood Product (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite detection; clouds leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-14
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite detection; clouds leave gaps. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Estimated
- Source
- Gridded Population of the World v4.11 (NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University))
- Provider
- NASA SEDAC (CIESIN, Columbia University)
- Licence
- CC BY 4.0
- Vintage
- null; Census-based estimate, static (2020)
- Resolution
- about 1 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Census-based estimate of people per square kilometre in 2020, shown as exposure context; not a count of people affected by any hazard.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed (clouds and overpass timing leave gaps)
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 375 m (FIRMS) (NASA LANCE FIRMS)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE FIRMS
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite detection; clouds and overpass timing leave gaps
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-13
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite hot-spot detections for the day shown, including gas flares and industrial heat; not a confirmed fire, an incident report or a warning.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Estimated
- Source
- GPM IMERG (NASA GES DISC)
- Provider
- NASA GES DISC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite estimate, near real time
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-12
- Resolution
- about 2 km grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite estimate, near real time. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2) (NASA LAADS DAAC)
- Provider
- NASA LAADS DAAC
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite radiance, corrected for moonlight and atmosphere
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-12
- Resolution
- about 500 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite night-time radiance for the date shown; lights are a proxy for electricity use and outages, not a measurement of supply or access.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
About this layer
- Evidence
- Observed
- Source
- VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance (NASA LANCE)
- Provider
- NASA LANCE
- Licence
- NASA open data
- Vintage
- daily; Satellite image
- Newest at build
- 2026-10-14
- Resolution
- about 250 m grid
- Uncertainty
- Satellite image. Satellite or model raster as the provider publishes it. Clouds, swath gaps and retrieval error leave gaps and noise; values are indicators, not measurements at a place.
- Reached through
- gibs.earthdata.nasa.gov, only after you allow the live map
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.
Hazards now, 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 EONET · U.S. Geological Survey · NASA GPM IMERG EarlySources 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 hexagonal 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 hexagonal 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 hexagonal 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 hexagonal 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 hexagonal cells where shown (modified). NASA open data
- GPM IMERG precipitation, NASA Precipitation Processing System; distributed by the NASA Goddard Earth Sciences Data and Information Services Center (GES DISC); imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal 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 hexagonal 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 hexagonal 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 hexagonal cells where shown (modified). ODbL
- Blue Marble, NASA Earth Observatory; imagery via NASA GIBS. Colours redrawn from the published colour map; values averaged into hexagonal 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.
- Live events: NASA Earth Observatory Natural Event Tracker (EONET); events are indicative and keep their original source links.
- Live: NASA EONET Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Live: U.S. Geological Survey Events are indicative, not authority warnings.
- Live: NASA GPM IMERG Early. 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).
- 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).
- River discharge forecast, 30 days with range (GloFAS via Open-Meteo): Contains modified Copernicus Emergency Management Service information 2026; not a flood warning.
- 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 (20 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
- Flood water, 3-day composite: VIIRS Global Flood Product, NASA LANCE · 14 Oct 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
- Precipitation rate, daily mean: GPM IMERG, NASA GES DISC · 12 Oct 2026
- Night-time lights, daily: VIIRS Black Marble (VNP46A2), NASA LAADS DAAC · 12 Oct 2026
- True colour: VIIRS NOAA-20 corrected reflectance, NASA LANCE · 13 Oct 2026
Built on named science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Every claim on Disaster and Crisis Governance rests on methods with a canonical page in the STEM Commons, so readers can see what a finding depends on and where its limits lie.
How this works across the six pillars.
Disaster and Crisis Governance works through six pillars of one annual programme, led by the Nexus Consortium, with GCRI, GRF and GRA each contributing in its role: explore, experiment and prototype in Labs, build, simulate and prepare in Foundry, convene and test in Universe, codify, correct and apply in Nexus Standards, publish in every format in Reports, teach in the open in Risk Academy.
handoff in playrecorded handoffno direct handoff
Programme yearAll phases
Route
The whole programme
Every pillar hands its work to another; together they close the year’s feedback loops.
L · F · U · S · R · A
- Pillars
- 6 of 6
- Handoffs
- 18 of 18
- Loops
- 17 closed
Handoffs in play
- F01Universe → Foundry · Admitted mission becomes a cycle project with a decision caseReadiness preparation
- F02Foundry → Universe · Core Build Report and go or no-go evidenceControlled build
- F03Foundry → Reports · Sealed observations and indicator series behind a profileCloseout
- F04Universe → Reports · After-action and scenario findings for chapters 10 and 13After-action review
and 14 more
- LabsWhere questions become experiments and prototypes: new methods, data and tools are tried in the open, with their limits on record, before the Foundry builds them, under the Nexus Consortium.Labs
- FoundryWhere the evidence behind a mandate or commitment is built, with its owner and limits on record.Disaster and Crisis Governance in FoundryFoundry
- UniverseWhere mandates become missions: GRF records each gate, convenes the parties and keeps implementation accountable.Disaster and Crisis Governance in Universeuniverse.nexus
- Nexus StandardsWhere shared rules are agreed in the open; each jurisdiction decides adoption, and no global body holds a veto.Hazards and Disaster Risk Reduction in Standardsnexustandards.com
- ReportsWhere governance analysis and the year’s results are published, so commitments can be followed and checked.Disaster and Crisis Governance in ReportsReports
- Risk AcademyWhere policymakers, diplomats and agency staff learn the programme roles and decision-making on the record, on Risk Academy.Faculty of Hazards, Disasters and Resilience in Academyrisksacademy.com
What the work is read against.
The platform does not set standards. It reads its evidence against the frameworks that competent bodies have adopted, so a finding can be placed where a decision-maker already works.
| Framework or standard | Body | What it sets |
|---|---|---|
| Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction | United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) | Four priorities and seven global targets, including strengthening disaster risk governance and enhancing preparedness for effective response and to build back better |
| Early Warnings for All initiative | UN Secretary-General, led by WMO and UNDRR with ITU and IFRC | Four pillars of people-centred early warning: risk knowledge, detection and forecasting, warning dissemination, and preparedness to respond |
| International Health Regulations | World Health Organization (WHO) | Binding obligations to detect, assess, notify and respond to public health events, including core capacities for emergencies |
| ISO 22301 Business continuity management systems | International Organization for Standardization | Requirements for planning, operating and improving a business continuity management system |
| ISO 22320 Emergency management, guidelines for incident management | International Organization for Standardization | Principles for command, coordination, cooperation and information in incident response |
| Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) | OASIS, adopted as ITU-T Recommendation X.1303 | A standard format for exchanging public warnings across systems and channels |
| INSARAG Guidelines | International Search and Rescue Advisory Group, UN OCHA | Standards and coordination methodology for international urban search and rescue teams |
| IASC cluster approach and humanitarian system-wide scale-up protocols | Inter-Agency Standing Committee | Lead agencies and coordination arrangements for humanitarian response by sector |
| OECD Recommendation on the Governance of Critical Risks | Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development | Principles for whole-of-society risk governance, from anticipation to recovery |
The same field, seen three ways.
GCRI studies a field as science, GRF governs it and GRA builds shared financial understanding of it. Disaster and Crisis Governance links to its counterparts so that work on one side is visible on the others.
- Water NexusInstitutionGCRIShared fieldCritical infrastructure
- Energy NexusInstitutionGCRIShared fieldCritical infrastructure
- Climate and HazardsInstitutionGCRIShared fieldDisaster and crisis
- Disaster Resilience and RecoveryInstitutionGCRIShared fieldDisaster and crisis
- Critical InfrastructureInstitutionGCRIShared fieldCritical infrastructure
- Cities and Built EnvironmentInstitutionGCRIShared fieldCritical infrastructure
- Cybersecurity and Digital ResilienceInstitutionGCRIShared fieldCritical infrastructure
- Development Finance NexusInstitutionGRAShared fieldCritical infrastructure
Pages in Disaster and Crisis Governance.
Mandate, publisher and status
PageDiscipline and institutional issues
PageResearch and institutional knowledge
PageProfessional practice
PageDialogues and cooperation
PageProgrammes and projects
PageAnnual programme contribution
PageSpecialist and institutional community
PageLeadership and skills
PageConvenings and dialogues
PagePublished findings
PageParticipate
PageInstitutional contact
PageTransparency, rights and safeguards
PageSTEM foundation of Disaster and Crisis Governance
PageHow work moves in this field
PageBuild in Foundry
PageTest in Universe
PagePublish in Reports
PageThe same field across the Consortium
PageTopics
Where this page leads across the Consortium.
Questions and answers.
Who publishes Disaster and Crisis Governance?
Is Disaster and Crisis Governance active?
How can I contribute?
Where are findings published?
Which values on this platform are real?
How do I report an error?
Does the platform coordinate disaster response?
Who is the platform for?
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.
- EmailGateway GW-GRFSend it from this pageEvidence, a correction, a case, a method, a review, a translation or profile input. It arrives tagged with this page, so the editor who owns it receives it.
- ZenodoOpen depositDeposit it and submit to the communityPublish your own record on Zenodo with your ORCID iD, then submit it to the Reports community there. Curators review it; the DOI stays yours.
- ReportsGlobal Risks ForumSee every way to contributeThe contribution types, how each is reviewed, what credit you receive, the licence and what is never accepted.
Never send personal data, sensitive infrastructure detail or anything you have no right to share. A contribution is reviewed before use; sending it confers no authorship or editorial rights, and sponsorship never buys a finding.
How Disaster and Crisis Governance works.
Choose a view and press Play to follow the platform’s process, its programme year, the standards it applies and how its findings are published. The outline shows how the work is designed to run, not the status of any decision.
Disaster and Crisis Governance
How Disaster and Crisis Governance works
Platforms · Programme year · Standards · Reports
A platform joins a field to named methods, labelled evidence and the outputs it publishes, without becoming the authority it serves.
01 Scope
- 01Field and familiesStart · The platform leadThe home states the field, its families and who it serves.
- 02Topic dossiersRecord · Platform authorsTopics explain the subject with labelled evidence.
02 Evidence
- 03Evidence labelsRecord · GCRIEach value is labelled: observed, published statistics, estimated, modelled, scenario or unknown.
- 04MethodsStep · Method ownersMethods come from the STEM Commons, each with one canonical page.
03 Work
- 05Scenarios on the systemsModel · Foundry pillarScenarios run on the Nexus systems, labelled as scenario.
- 06Standards that applyRecord · Nexus StandardsThe platform names the standards that apply. A validator report is evidence for review.
04 Publish
- 07EditionsRecord · ReportsFindings are published through Reports with their limits.
- 08Authority decidesOutcome · The competent authorityDecisions and execution stay with the government, operator or licensed institution.
Disaster and Crisis Governance home · Platforms · Shared methodsAn outline of how the work is designed to run; it does not report the status of any decision or record.
Take part in Disaster and Crisis Governance.
Start from who you are. Answer an open call. Or form and lead a competence cell on the Disaster and Crisis Governance platform.
National institutions
Ministries, statistics offices and agencies: a national desk and chapter, and a seat in the working groups. National chapters
Sectors and professions
Operators, regulators, banks, insurers and professional bodies whose work touches Disaster and Crisis Governance. Participate
Learning
Courses and practice, with a record of every course completed. Free to study. Open learning
Standards
Draft, review and adopt the methods and data standards with the working groups. Working groups
Communities and research
Universities, civil society and individual experts: projects, data and review. Write to the team
| Open call | Seeks | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Founding call for experts to the working groups CALL-FOUNDING-EXPERTS | expert, editor, chair | 2026-12-15 |
| Open nomination for the three independent expert seats of the Global Standards Council CALL-GSC-IND | council-member | 2026-12-01 |
| Nominations of interim regional members (applies only if the transitional provision is decided) CALL-GSC-REG | council-member | 2026-12-15 |
| Review of the wave-1 risk core outlines (C1, C2, C3, C4, C8, C10, C11) CALL-REVIEW-WAVE1 | contributor | 2027-01-31 |
| Experts for the core standards of risk science: uncertainty and evidence grading, scales, structured expert judgement, tolerability, extremes and compound events, catastrophic and existential risk, ethics and equity, units and measurement (NRS-C17 to NRS-C24) CALL-CORE-SCIENCE | expert, editor, chair | 2027-01-31 |
| Independent reviewers for the families of the hazard atlas, three from at least two regions for each family (NHS2-R19), priority families first CALL-ATLAS-REVIEW | expert | 2027-03-31 |
| Members of the interim Frontier Safety Review Panel and red-team reviewers (biosafety and biosecurity, AI safety and security, critical-infrastructure security); applications treated in confidence CALL-FRONTIER-SAFETY-REVIEW | expert | 2026-11-30 |
| Experts in ontology, metrology, software verification and conformity assessment for the requirement register, the NHS-2 machine representation, the conformance test suites and the conformity assessment scheme CALL-CONFORMANCE-ONTOLOGY | expert, editor | 2027-01-31 |
Calls past their closing date are hidden automatically. Every call, proposal and route: open areas and calls.
Gather the cell
Bring together three to seven people with complementary skills: data, field practice, policy and communication.
Register it
Write to the team with the cell’s name, members, area and region. You receive a reference and a contact. Write to the team
Choose a charter
Pick one focus: research and evidence, data and maps, standards review, or community preparedness.
Learn together
Follow shared study paths at Risk Academy, with practice and a record of every course completed. Hazards and resilience
Lead and report
Hold regular sessions. Publish what the cell learns through Reports. Bring findings to the working groups. Working groups
What a national team or a local community can do on The Global Risks Index (NXS-GRX) today.
Your country’s profile
Open risk profiles for 195 countries, with sources and licences on every value. Open the Index
Correct or reply
Correct a value or reply for your country. The change is logged with its effect. Open the Index
Offer data
Offer a dataset. It enters through the licence gate, with your credit. Open the Index
Every figure on this page is indexed: hazards, infrastructure, society, The Caribbean.
The Index is the Consortium’s indexing system for risk data. Every indicator, hazard, series and country profile carries its Nexus Standards identifier, its source and its licence, so what this page shows can be traced, corrected and reused.
- 01 · Sources205 registered sourcesEvery value keeps its source and licence; withheld values are counted.Data and licences
- 02 · Nexus StandardsNIS-1 and NHS-1451 indicators, 905 hazards; every record carries a UNI.Nexus Standards
- 03 · The Index54 series, 195 country profilesComputed on the standards; no value is published until an edition is released.The Global Risks Index
- 04 · This pageDisaster and Crisis GovernanceMaps, figures and feeds read the Index in the context of hazards, infrastructure, society and The Caribbean.Public API
Series in this context hazards, infrastructure, society
- GSGlobal DisasterMulti-hazard exposure, disaster losses and mortality, return-period losses, protection gaps and coping capacity.NXS-GRX-AR-000066Hazards · Crisis · Infrastructure
- THDisaster Risk Reduction (DRR)Hazard, exposure, vulnerability, capacity, preparedness, redundancy and recovery readings for planning and learning, aligned to the Sendai Framework targets.NXS-GRX-AR-000109Hazards · Crisis · Infrastructure
- GLBGlobal SystemsThe state of interdependent global risk: the twenty domain indices aggregated to the world, the five core systems (water, energy, food, health, biodiversity) and their couplings, the global tail register and the gap…NXS-GRX-AR-000002Hazards · Society · Infrastructure
- GSGlobal CitiesUrban exposure, heat, flooding, informal settlement, service dependency and the economic weight of cities at risk.NXS-GRX-AR-000068Hazards · Infrastructure · Society
Country profiles The Caribbean
Every country profile carries the source and licence of each value. Correct a value or reply
Hazard domains NHS-1
- Atmosphere and weatherNXS-GRX-AR-000135
- Water systemsNXS-GRX-AR-000136
- Solid EarthNXS-GRX-AR-000138
Geodata and API open
Open layers on an equal-area hexagon grid, shown as densities per km² or as symbols: People · GHSL 2025People · WorldPop 2025Built-up areaPortsAirportsRoadsRailwaysRivers and lake centrelines
/api/v1/public/grix · https://nexustandards.com/uni/{uni}
Developers · Data · Made with Natural Earth, Public domain; GHSL and WorldPop, CC BY 4.0
Snapshot of the Index registries pinned 2026-10-23 · 22c6eed. Research and risk-analytics information: not a rating, an official classification, a warning, a benchmark or advice.
Bring a governance question to the Forum.
Information and enquiries are open today. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.
Legal documents.
Show all 18 legal documents
Maps, data and figures on this site are shown for context and general information. They are not advice, forecasts or warnings; the limits of the information are set out in the Disclaimers and Data Notices.