> 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/model/sectors/health.md). # Health Health in the Nexus model: care and public health that depend on water, food, energy and access, the workforce every other sector runs on, and the teaching contexts in which health is hit first. **Where this fits:** health (H) and the sectors it couples to · Nexus Universe, Nexus Reports and Risk Academy · GCRI (evidence and methods) · Planning and readiness preparation · model page. **In brief.** Health depends on water for drinking water and sanitation (0.7), on food for nutrition (0.7), on energy for hospital power (0.5) and on infrastructure for access to care (0.5). It gives back the workforce every other sector needs, through weaker relations (0.1 to 0.3). Health is hit first in a pandemic and in a heatwave, and its stress in the heatwave context reaches 0.84 after four rounds of the teaching cascade, the highest of any sector in that context. All strengths on this page are **teaching values for a typical city-region, not measurements for any place**. ## What the sector carries Health is the sector in which the costs of coupled risk are counted in lives. It is also the sector whose own disruption, through workforce absence, spreads into every other. The One Health approach treats the health of people, animals and ecosystems as one system (OHHLEP, [2022](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1010537)), and the International Health Regulations set the binding framework for detecting and responding to public health events (WHO, [2016](https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241580496)). ## What health gives Read from health to the sector it supports, strongest first. | To | Strength | Through | | --------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | ------------------------ | | [Food](/organization/model/sectors/food.md) | 0.3 | farm labour | | [Infrastructure](/organization/model/sectors/infrastructure.md) | 0.3 | workforce for operations | | [Energy](/organization/model/sectors/energy.md) | 0.2 | grid workforce | | [Water](/organization/model/sectors/water.md) | 0.2 | utility workforce | | [Biodiversity](/organization/model/sectors/biodiversity.md) | 0.1 | conservation capacity | ## What health depends on Read from the sector it depends on, strongest first. | From | Strength | Through | | --------------------------------------------------------------- | -------- | -------------------------------- | | [Water](/organization/model/sectors/water.md) | 0.7 | drinking water and sanitation | | [Food](/organization/model/sectors/food.md) | 0.7 | nutrition | | [Energy](/organization/model/sectors/energy.md) | 0.5 | hospital power | | [Infrastructure](/organization/model/sectors/infrastructure.md) | 0.5 | access to care | | [Biodiversity](/organization/model/sectors/biodiversity.md) | 0.4 | zoonotic spillover and medicines | ## Teaching contexts The contexts in which health is in play, whether hit first or reached through the coupling, with its stress after four rounds of the teaching cascade. | Context | Role of this sector | Stress after four rounds | How the sectors fail together | | ------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------- | ------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | [Urban flood](/organization/model/scenarios/urban-flood.md) | Reached through the coupling | 0.41 | Flooded streets take out substations, pumping stations and clinic access together; drinking water fails when power does. | | [Drought](/organization/model/scenarios/drought.md) | Reached through the coupling | 0.30 | Low river flows cut irrigation, cooling water and hydropower at once; food prices, nutrition and ecosystems follow. | | [Heatwave](/organization/model/scenarios/heatwave.md) | Hit first | 0.84 | Cooling demand peaks the grid while rivers warm; heat stress fills hospitals and wilts crops. | | [Grid blackout](/organization/model/scenarios/blackout.md) | Reached through the coupling | 0.26 | Without power, water treatment, telecoms, cold chains and hospitals fall back on fuel that runs out. | | [Pandemic](/organization/model/scenarios/pandemic.md) | Hit first | 0.65 | Workforce absence ripples from clinics into grid operations, logistics and farm labour. | | [Pollinator decline](/organization/model/scenarios/pollinator.md) | Reached through the coupling | 0.12 | Fewer pollinators lower yields of fruit and vegetables, with a direct path to diet quality. | | [Coastal storm surge](/organization/model/scenarios/storm-surge.md) | Reached through the coupling | 0.37 | Mangroves and dunes absorb the surge; where they are gone, ports, substations and water intakes take it. | ## Observing the sector [**Nexus of Observatories**](/organization/systems.md)**.** Every Nexus platform and system includes its own observatory capability, covering remote sensing, in-situ instruments and edge deployments. Across every area where these observatories are implemented, they form the Nexus of Observatories, part of the not-for-profit programme architecture. The GCRI site describes the capability on its [Observatory](https://therisk.global/ecosystem/observatory/) page. What the observatories record about health, and under what terms, is set for each country in its National Model and its profile scope agreement. Records follow the [Nexus Standards](/organization/institutions/nexus-standards.md) published on [nexustandards.com](https://nexustandards.com/standards/), whose text and status govern. ## International frameworks | Framework | What it governs or shows | Source | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | International Health Regulations (2005) | Detection, notification and response to public health events; 2024 amendments add a pandemic emergency alert level | [2016](https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241580496) | | One Health (OHHLEP definition) | Integrated health of people, animals and ecosystems, adopted by the Quadripartite | [OHHLEP](https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1010537) | | IPBES nexus assessment | Interlinkages of health with biodiversity, water and food | [2024](https://www.ipbes.net/nexus-assessment) | | Sendai Framework | Health as a dimension of disaster risk and of resilience | [2015](https://www.undrr.org/publication/sendai-framework-disaster-risk-reduction-2015-2030) | ## Deeper reading in this documentation [Health systems (thesis)](/organization/organization/architecture/i.-thesis/ix.-health-systems.md) · [Future of Health (guild)](/organization/cooperation/nexus-guilds/future-of-health.md) ## Sources * World Health Organization (2016). International Health Regulations (2005), third edition. Geneva: WHO; amendments adopted by the Seventy-seventh World Health Assembly (WHA77.17, 1 June 2024), in force 19 September 2025. * IPBES (2024). Summary for Policymakers of the Thematic Assessment Report on the Interlinkages among Biodiversity, Water, Food and Health (Nexus Assessment). IPBES/11/12/Add.1. Bonn: IPBES secretariat. doi:10.5281/zenodo.13850289. * One Health High-Level Expert Panel (OHHLEP), Adisasmito, W. B. et al. (2022). One Health: A new definition for a sustainable and healthy future. PLoS Pathogens 18(6): e1010537. doi:10.1371/journal.ppat.1010537. * UN General Assembly (2015). Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. A/RES/69/283, 3 June 2015. * The model data: the "Coupled risk, applied response" section of the [GCRI home page](https://therisk.global/). --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. 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