Vulnerability assessment elements

Some points to consider related to the six basic elements listed above are included in table 5.1. The manner in which the vulnerability assessment is performed is determined by each individual water/wastewater utility. Throughout the assessment process it is important to remember that the ultimate goal is twofold to safeguard public health and safety and to reduce the potential for disruption of a reliable supply of chemicals. 

Assessments should take place once every three to five years at a minimum. Chemical industries may be well served by doing assessments annually. The basic elements of sound vulnerability assessments are... 

This chapter provides a discussion of current security guidelines and regulations (Section 6.2) and a methodology for adapting and applying security vulnerability assessment (SVA) techniques designed for fixed chemical facilities to account for the differences specific to transportation (Sections 6.3 and 6.4). Practical transportation security elements are provided in Section 6.5. Finally, at the end of the chapter, the XYZ Chemical example highlights the unique issues of a security vulnerabiUty assessment as compared to a safety risk analysis. 

The development of a quantitative rockfall risk assessment (QRA) should include 1) assessment of the annual frequency of occurrence of rockfall events at different scenarios—temporal frequency 2) assessment of the probability of rockfall reach at given location—spatial frequency 3) rockfall magnitude (e.g., volume) 4) vulnerability assessment 5) definition of the value of the Elements at Risk (Guzetti et al., 2002, 2003 and 2004 Aliardi and Crosta, 2003 Corominas et al., 2005 Australian Geomechanics Society, 2007 Straub and Schubert, 2008 Agliardi et al., 2009). 

Due to the complex mobility, rockfall-specific assessment should address various parameters including energy, frequency, block size, characteristics of the topography, uncertainty of all parameters, etc (Jaboyedoff et al., 2005). In many situations rockfall hazards can not be eliminated because their frequency and intensity vary both spatially and temporally (Lan et al., 2007, 2010). Such spatial and temporal variability of the hazard and vulnerability of elements at risk result in difficulties in risk assessment for rockfall hazard. 

The risk evaluation also includes the potential impact on vulnerable infrastructures (Wong et al., 1997). Vulnerability can be defined as the level of potential damage, or degree of loss, of a given element (0 to 1) subject to a hazard of a given intensity (Fell 1994). Vulnerability assessment therefore involves the interaction between a given hazard event and the element at risk. The vulnerability of element at risk can be expressed by (Uzielli et al., 2008 Kaynia et al., 2008) ... 

Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Reinforced Concrete Structures, Fig. 2 Collapse modes of RC elements subjected to axial load, shear, and bending... 

Assess the vulnerability of chemical and fuel storage areas, and other key infrastructure elements. 

Risk assessment is an essential feature of disaster planning and is in essence a calculation or model of risk, in which a comprehensive inventory is created including all existing and potential dangers, the population most likely to be affected by each danger, and a prediction of the health consequences. Risk analysis uses the elements of hazard analysis and vulnerability... 

Given the complexity of these highly distributed and interconnected infrastructures, performing a systematic analysis of their vulnerabiHty and robustness to failure becomes difficult if one resorts only to traditional probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) methods, so that new complementary approaches of network analysis are emerging for characterizing the network resistance to failure and identifying its most vulnerable elements (Hines (2008), Newmann (2003), Freeman (1978,1979), Koonce (2007), Cadini (2008), Zio (2008). 

Vulnerability Analysis Assessment of elements in the community that are susceptible to damage should a release of hazardous materials occur. 

The key elements in situational crime prevention are as follows. There must be a motivated offender, there must be a suitable reward or goal, and there must be an absence of appropriate controls. Situational crime prevention posits that all three elements may be assessed to determine the crime vulnerability of a location or a situation. 

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