Research on the Vulnerability Assessment Model of Urban Water Supply Systems

Abstract

In this paper, the vulnerability of urban water supply systems was analyzed to protect the safety of water supply effectively, and a new vulnerability assessment model for urban water supply systems was proposed. Firstly, According to the characteristics of systems, the concept of vulnerability in urban water supply systems was proposed based on the definitions of vulnerability in the other areas. Secondly, the interaction of natural, social, economic and environmental factors was considered comprehensively. Then the physical exposure level and inherent respond sensitivity of water supply systems to resist the threat were analyzed, and the disaster respond capacity of human which accompanied with the water supply systems was also analyzed. On this basis, the vulnerability assessment indicators of urban water supply systems were proposed. Thirdly, according to the cascade characteristics and collaborative mechanism of different subsystems, the transmission mechanism of vulnerability in urban water supply systems was analyzed. Then, the vulnerability assessment model for urban water supply systems was established. Finally, the model was used to analyze and assessment the vulnerability of KGWL processing zone's water supply systems in North China. The results show that the assessment model which proposed in this paper is simple, practical, and could be used to provide decision basis for the security upgrade of urban water supply systems.