Development banks — infrastructure due diligence and impact monitoring

Multilateral development banks (World Bank, EBRD, ADB, IFC, AIIB), development finance institutions, and infrastructure investors finance billions of dollars of port, pipeline, and maritime infrastructure every year. NTHMAP supports the due diligence phase ("is this project viable?"), the execution phase ("is it being built?"), and the post-completion monitoring phase ("is it operating as planned?").

Pre-investment due diligence

Before approving a port expansion loan, a DFI wants to understand:

1. Current throughput at the existing port
2. Traffic growth trajectory over recent years
3. Competing ports nearby and their relative utilization
4. Environmental context — weather, climate risk, geopolitical

NTHMAP addresses 1, 3, and 4 directly; 2 requires historical data that enterprise customers can access via archive products.

Example: Chabahar Port expansion due diligence

A hypothetical $600M loan to expand Chabahar Port in Iran. The due diligence questions:

• How does current Chabahar traffic compare to nearby ports (Bandar Abbas, Jebel Ali, Karachi)?
• What's the geopolitical risk (sanctions, conflict zone proximity)?
• What's the climate risk (monsoon, cyclone exposure)?

# Current vessels near Chabahar
nthmap vessels list --bbox 60.6,25.3,60.9,25.4

# Compare to Bandar Abbas
nthmap vessels list --bbox 56.1,27.0,56.4,27.2

# Compare to Jebel Ali
nthmap vessels list --bbox 55.0,25.0,55.1,25.1

# Active events in the region
nthmap events list --bbox 55,22,65,28 --active

# Check for sanctions-related events or notes
nthmap chokepoints list --format json | jq '.[] | select(.name == "Strait of Hormuz")'

A due diligence officer can run this sequence in minutes and have a quantitative baseline for the board's investment paper.

Construction phase monitoring

Infrastructure projects frequently get delayed or abandoned mid-construction. A DFI can track construction progress indirectly via:

1. Vessel activity at the construction site (supply vessels, offshore support vessels, heavy-lift)
2. Absence of events that would halt work
3. Operating status of co-located assets

# Vessels at a specific coordinate over time (enterprise gets history)
nthmap vessels list --bbox $(bbox_around $PROJECT_LAT $PROJECT_LNG 20)

For port expansions or offshore wind builds, regular vessel activity is the best observable proxy that work is happening.

Post-completion impact monitoring

Once a project is operational, the DFI wants to report on its impact. For a port expansion financed to increase container throughput by 50%, did it actually happen?

NTHMAP gives the "after" snapshot:

nthmap vessels list \
  --bbox $(port_bbox $PORT_NAME) \
  --types "Container Ship" \
  --format json | jq length

Compared to baseline (from your own records or enterprise archives), you get an operational impact number that goes into the annual report.

Climate risk for infrastructure finance

Climate risk disclosure is now mandatory for major DFIs. NTHMAP events layer gives objective historical record (enterprise) and current state (Pro):

# Any hurricanes near a financed coastal port
nthmap events list --types hurricane --bbox $(port_bbox $PORT_NAME)

For annual climate-risk disclosures, aggregating event overlaps with financed infrastructure over a reporting period gives you a factual foundation.

Trade corridor analysis

Development banks often finance "trade corridor" projects — a set of integrated investments aimed at boosting trade along a specific route. E.g., the Central Corridor (Dar es Salaam → Rwanda → DRC), the North-South Transport Corridor, the Lobito Corridor, the Belt and Road Initiative corridors.

NTHMAP gives the maritime leg's current throughput:

# Lobito Corridor — Angola to Zambia/DRC
# Starts at Lobito port, Angola
nthmap vessels list --bbox 13.3,-12.5,13.5,-12.3

Combined with rail and road data from other sources, you get a full corridor utilization picture.

Sustainability & ESG reporting

Most DFIs report against the UN SDGs and maintain their own environmental and social safeguards. NTHMAP supports:

• SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, Infrastructure) — infrastructure inventories and utilization
• SDG 13 (Climate Action) — event exposure monitoring
• SDG 14 (Life Below Water) — shipping traffic density near marine protected areas

# Example: vessel density near a Marine Protected Area
nthmap vessels list --bbox $MPA_BBOX

Used as evidence that a financed infrastructure isn't causing excess disturbance in a nearby protected area.

Integration with ESG data providers

NTHMAP data can feed into ESG data platforms:

• Sustainalytics — physical data as input to port/shipping sector scores
• MSCI ESG — maritime operations exposure
• S&P Global Sustainable1 — climate risk exposure
• Climate TRACE — emissions inference from vessel activity

The API is clean enough to embed as a source in these platforms' ingestion pipelines.

Academic & research partnership

NTHMAP maintains relationships with research programs at:

• World Bank Research Group
• Brookings Institution
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
• Peterson Institute for International Economics

Peer-reviewed research is eligible for free or reduced-cost access. Email research@nthmap.com.

Getting started

For DFI or institutional use, we recommend skipping the free tier and going straight to a conversation with enterprise@nthmap.com. We can typically structure pilot access that includes historical archives and dedicated support within two weeks.

The CLI docs and API reference are good starting points for developer onboarding.