> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.therisk.global/organization/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.therisk.global/organization/introduction.md). # INTRODUCTION Introduction to the Nexus programme: coupled risk across six sectors, the applied response of six pillars, the institutions that carry it from global to local, and how to read this documentation. **Where this fits:** all six sectors · all six pillars · the Nexus Consortium (GCRI Canada, GRF and GRA) · the whole programme year · landing page of the documentation. **New here?** Read [Start here](/organization/introduction/start-here.md) for who the institutions are and the current programme status in plain words. ## In brief Nexus is a public-good programme for systemic risk. It starts from an observation that the disaster-risk and climate literature has documented for two decades: risks are coupled. A flood that closes a substation also stops the pumps that treat drinking water and the road to the clinic; a drought cuts irrigation, cooling water and hydropower in the same month (Rinaldi et al., 2001; Pescaroli and Alexander, 2018; IPCC, 2022). The programme answers coupled risk with an applied response that is coupled too. Six pillars, Labs, Foundry, [Nexus Universe](/organization/programme/universe.md), [Nexus Standards](/organization/institutions/nexus-standards.md), [Nexus Reports](/organization/programme/reports.md) and [Risk Academy](/organization/programme/academy.md), hand their work to one another through eighteen recorded handoffs over one [programme year](/organization/programme/the-programme-year.md). Three independent not-for-profit institutions lead it: GCRI Canada as Lead Institution, Consortium Secretariat and lead contracting organization, and [The Global Risks Forum](/organization/institutions/grf.md) (GRF) and [The Global Risks Alliance](/organization/institutions/gra.md) (GRA) as consortium stewards. National counterparts own the agenda, the data and the decisions in their own country. The programme informs; it does not decide. It is not a regulator, a certifier, a lender, an insurer or a rating agency, and every programme is at service level R0, information and enquiries, while it is in formation ([Programme status](https://therisk.global/consortium/programme-status/)). ## The model in one picture The same two hexagons open the GCRI, GRF and GRA home pages. [The Model](/organization/model.md) explains them in full: [coupled risk](/organization/model/coupled-risk.md) across water, energy, infrastructure, food, health and biodiversity, and the [applied response](/organization/model/applied-response.md) of the six pillars, with [eight scenarios](/organization/model/scenarios.md) that show the two together. ## Where to go | To understand | Read | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | | The model: which sectors fail together, and how the programme answers | [The Model](/organization/model.md) | | Who leads, and what each institution may and may not do | [Institutions](/organization/institutions.md) | | The six pillars and the programme year, with its gates G0 to G7 | [Programme](/organization/programme.md) | | How it works from global to local: [National Nexus](/organization/governance-in-operation/national-nexus.md), the NNC, NLC and NWG, councils and decision rights | [Governance in operation](/organization/governance-in-operation.md) | | How evidence becomes readable to finance without the programme becoming a financier | [Finance readiness](/organization/finance-readiness.md) | | What a UN agency, central bank, ministry, development bank, city or utility can use | [Use by](/organization/use-by.md) | | The twenty systems, as systems | [Systems](/organization/systems.md) | | The open standards that identify, describe and govern the records | [Nexus Standards](/organization/standards.md) | | Terms, sources and citation style | [Reference](/organization/reference.md) | ## The introductions to the deep doctrine The six introductions below explain the older, deeper doctrine of this documentation in plain words. Each links back to the model and to the canonical pages above. * [KNOWLEDGE](/organization/introduction/knowledge.md): how this knowledge base is built, read, governed and corrected. * [ORGANIZATION](/organization/introduction/organization.md): the institutional order, its charters and its federation, and the global-to-local grammar. * [OPERATIONS](/organization/introduction/operations.md): the operating frameworks, mechanisms, networks, reports, media, forum and platforms. * [COOPERATION](/organization/introduction/cooperation.md): the consortiums, guilds, councils, domains and pathways through which people and institutions take part. * [STANDARDIZATION](/organization/introduction/standardization.md): order, ontology, status, registry, protocol and outputs, and their relation to the published Nexus Standards. * [ACCELERATION](/organization/introduction/acceleration.md): the build work of the Foundry pillar and the twenty systems, compute and edge, programmes, the marketplace boundary, consortiums and campaigns. ## Related topics * [I. Global Governance](/organization/organization/architecture/i.-thesis/i.-global-governance.md): systemic risk governance and global-to-local coordination. * [Systems Thinking for Risk and Innovation](/organization/standardization/nexus-ecosystem/iii.-infrastructure/principles/systems-thinking-for-risk-and-innovation-in-the-nexus-ecosystem.md): cascading risk, policy coherence and cross-sector systems thinking. * [Interoperability by Default](/organization/standardization/nexus-ecosystem/iii.-infrastructure/principles/interoperability-by-default-in-the-nexus-ecosystem.md): interoperability, standards alignment and continuity across jurisdictions. * [Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)](/organization/cooperation/consortiums/frontiers/gra/ecosystem/systems/disaster-risk-reduction-drr.md), [Disaster Risk Intelligence (DRI)](/organization/cooperation/consortiums/frontiers/gra/ecosystem/systems/disaster-risk-intelligence-dri.md) and [Disaster Risk Finance (DRF)](/organization/cooperation/consortiums/frontiers/gra/ecosystem/systems/disaster-risk-finance-drf.md): the risk and resilience pathways, read with [Finance readiness](/organization/finance-readiness.md) for the boundary that applies to finance. ## Sources 1. Rinaldi, S. M., Peerenboom, J. P. and Kelly, T. K. (2001). "Identifying, understanding, and analyzing critical infrastructure interdependencies." *IEEE Control Systems Magazine* 21(6): 11–25. [doi.org/10.1109/37.969131](https://doi.org/10.1109/37.969131). 2. Pescaroli, G. and Alexander, D. (2018). "Understanding compound, interconnected, interacting, and cascading risks: a holistic framework." *Risk Analysis* 38(11): 2245–2257. [doi.org/10.1111/risa.13128](https://doi.org/10.1111/risa.13128). 3. IPCC (2022). *Climate Change 2022: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability*. Contribution of Working Group II to the Sixth Assessment Report. [ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2](https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg2/). 4. GCRI. *Programme status* and *How Nexus Consortium works*, therisk.global, read 21 October 2026. [therisk.global/consortium](https://therisk.global/consortium/). --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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