Vulnerability Assessment Studies Research Articles

A global analysis of nearshore and submarine springs: spatial distribution, controlling factors, and probability of presence

Coastal springs act as bi-directionally preferential flow paths between coastal aquifers and oceans. While these springs can supply coastal ecosystems with nutrients, they also present vulnerabilities such as contamination and seawater intrusion. Despite their significance, substantial knowledge gaps exist regarding coastal springs due to their complex hydrogeological nature. This study provides a comprehensive global assessment of coastal springs, focusing on their distribution, controlling factors, and likelihood of occurrence. A global dataset of known coastal springs was compiled and analyzed, revealing 66 % of identified springs in the Mediterranean region, mainly linked to karst systems. In contrast, fewer springs were noted in Africa, South America, and South Asia. Key factors influencing spring occurrence were examined using geostatistical methods and integrated into a multi-criteria decision-making framework to develop a Coastal Spring Probability Index (CSPI) along coastline. High-potential areas for coastal springs were identified in regions characterized by significant carbonate and volcanic rock formations, wetter climates, and active tectonic margins, such as southern Europe, the Caribbean, tropical islands, and eastern Asia. Conversely, regions with dry climates and high water demand, such as North Africa and South America, exhibited a lower likelihood of spring presence. These findings will serve as a baseline for local-scale studies and aimed at improving coastal spring inventories and establishing monitoring networks. It will contribute to vulnerability assessment studies, thereby enhancing the management of coastal groundwater resources. The study emphasizes the importance of multidisciplinary approaches to understand coastal spring dynamics and advocates for a strategic planning in groundwater management and conservation. Ongoing efforts to inventory and monitor coastal springs, coupled with targeted conservation measures, are essential for ensuring the long-term sustainability of coastal water resources and ecosystems.

Comparative study for coastal aquifer vulnerability assessment using deep learning and metaheuristic algorithms.

Coastal aquifer vulnerability assessment (CAVA) studies are essential for mitigating the effects of seawater intrusion (SWI) worldwide. In this research, the vulnerability of the coastal aquifer in the Lahijan region of northwest Iran was investigated. A vulnerability map (VM) was created applying hydrogeological parameters derived from the original GALDIT model (OGM). The significance of OGM parameters was assessed using the mean decrease accuracy (MDA)method, with the current state of SWI emerging as the most crucial factor for evaluating vulnerability. To optimize GALDIT weights, we introduced the biogeography-based optimization (BBO) and gray wolf optimization (GWO) techniques to obtain to hybrid OGM-BBO and OGM-GWO models, respectively. Despite considerable research focused on enhancing CAVA models, efforts to modify the weights and rates of OGM parameters by incorporating deep learning algorithms remain scarce. Hence, a convolutional neural network (CNN) algorithm was applied to produce the VM. The area under the receiver-operating characteristic curves for OGM-BBO, OGM-GWO, and VMCNN were 0.794, 0.835, and 0.982, respectively. According to the CNN-based VM, 41% of the aquifer displayed very high and high vulnerability to SWI, concentrated primarily along the coastline. Additionally, 32% of the aquifer exhibited very low and low vulnerability to SWI, predominantly in the southern and southwestern regions. The proposed model can be extended to evaluate the vulnerability of various coastal aquifers to SWI, thereby assisting land use planers and policymakers in identifying at-risk areas. Moreover, deep-learning-based approaches can help clarify the associations between aquifer vulnerability and contamination resulting from SWI.

Collaborative Security in Wireless Networks and Vulnerabilities Assessment for Fintech E-payment Companies: A Bibliometric Analysis

The purpose behind the technical analysis and science mapping in front of researchers to make them aware of the Internet of Things and mobile networking for providing collaborated security along with a visualized presentation to the financial and engineering researchers about the virtual vulnerability assessment issues. The objectives of this study are to analyze the available review of the literature and measure the most cited Journals through citation analysis and co-authorship analysis. The approach of BA (Bibliometric Analysis) has been executed in order to visualize literature reviews systematically. The researcher performed an in-depth study with reference to Collaborative Security and wireless networks (582), Collaborative Security and vulnerability assessment (253) and WiFi Security and Vulnerability Assessment (34) studies are available. The figures have been made through executing data over VOSviewer and tables are formed after compiling various affiliations. This technical study will help provide a literature base for more research to be executed in the arena of Information Systems (IS), Engineering, Computer Sciences, and Financial Technology. Also, it will provide a conceptual record for those practitioners and policymakers who are interested in performing exploratory research on wifi security assessment. It has been observed that more work can be done quantitatively for having certain measures regarding the virtual aspects of collaborative security amid its issues related to payment systems. Just mentioned the data are from Google Scholar and Dimensions.

Continental‐scale trends of daily precipitation records in late 20th century decades and 21st century projections: An analysis of observations, reanalyses and CORDEX‐CORE projections

AbstractWe apply a methodology to identify and count records (events of unprecedented intensity) in daily precipitation time series to two sets of data: (1) different observational and reanalysis products for recent decades and (2) twenty‐first century projections (RCP8.5 and RCP2.6 scenarios) completed with two regional climate models driven by three global climate models over nine continental‐scale domains. Comparison of the detected (or actual) number of records with the corresponding number theoretically expected in stationary climate conditions (or “reference” number of records) provides indications of trends in daily precipitation extremes, as expected in a changing climate. In particular, we measure deviations from stationary conditions using the ratio of actual to reference records (RAtR) as a basic metric. We find that the observational products provide mixed indications of precipitation record trends across regions, while in the reanalysis products and the model simulations for the historical period the RAtR value shows a prevailing increasing trend with time over most continents. The RAtR shows a consistent and pronounced increase in all RCP8.5 continental‐scale projections, when sustained warming occurs throughout the 21st century, while smaller to no significant trends are found in the RCP2.6 scenario, when the warming stabilizes after about mid‐21st century. These results are indicative of an increase in precipitation extremes with global warming as measured by the higher number of local precipitation events of unprecedented intensity compared to what expected in stationary climate conditions, although a marked variability of this response is found across different regions. Our method can have useful applications in detection and attribution of hydroclimatic extremes and in impact and vulnerability assessment studies.

Fragility curves for reinforced concrete frames with retrofitted masonry infills

Seismic retrofit of existing reinforced concrete framed buildings often involves both structural members and infill walls. The strengthening of infill walls is mainly aimed at preventing out-of-plane mechanisms and, in some cases, also increases in-plane capacity. On the other hand, the enhancement of the infill's strength might modify the failure mode of the frame, as stated by recent studies. In the case of gravity load-designed buildings, the presence of strong infill walls can lead to brittle failure of columns due to local interaction. This study investigates the effects of the in-plane shear retrofit of infills on the seismic behaviour of reinforced concrete buildings through non-linear dynamic analyses on a three-dimensional infilled frame. The seismic response of the structure is analysed in case of un-reinforced masonry wall and retrofitted wall, considering two types of retrofit. The analysis results are used to calibrate a simplified model aimed at computing fragility curves of reinforced concrete infilled frames and updating existing formulations, in order to account for the properties and the type of the infill. The proposed parameter can be applied in vulnerability assessment studies and for the design of new buildings.

A systematic review of coastal vulnerability assessment methods in the Egyptian context: the case study

ABSTRACT Coastal vulnerability is a multidimensional and vital issue in many parts of the world, as well as in Egypt. Accelerated human activities such as industry growth, tourism, and urbanization in coastal regions, together with climatic stresses – particularly Sea Level Rise (SLR) – have increased the intensity of potential risk. This review article aims to provide a coherent review of the various methods and approaches used in the coastal vulnerability assessment studies for the Egyptian northern Mediterranean coastal region. The PRISMA method was used to review and analyze coastal vulnerability assessment studies of a total of 26 Scopus peer-reviewed documents according to the selected methods, scales, and used variables in the time frame of 2012–2022. This review reveals the gaps of the current research, which are the following: lack of usage of predictive assessment methods, lack of temporal dynamic dimension in the selected methods and variables (present in only 3.8%), lack of local scale assessments (present in only 7.6%), and lack of transparency regarding the rationale for variable selection. Furthermore, the current challenges found in the reviewed coastal vulnerability assessment methods have been discussed to provide a more comprehensive, dynamic approach to assist researchers and coastal planners in preparing and protecting the vulnerable Egyptian northern coastal region.

Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment and Ecological Characteristics Study of Abies nephrolepis in South Korea

Abies nephrolepis is a climate-vulnerable species that inhabits high mountains in the Baekdu–Daegan range and is distributed along the southern limit line in South Korea, making it suitable for climate change research. This study aimed to observe spatial distribution changes according to scenarios using species distribution models for Abies nephrolepis, analyze the relationship between various environmental factors and Abies nephrolepis density, and contribute to the future conservation and management of subalpine coniferous forests. We conducted a field survey to identify the growth environment of Abies nephrolepis and observed potentially suitable habitats for Abies nephrolepis based on location information obtained through the survey. We also analyzed the relationship between the density of Abies nephrolepis and various environmental factors using multiple linear regression models. Based on the field survey results, most Abies nephrolepis natural habitats in South Korea showed an unstable form. Vulnerability analysis examining the influence of climate change showed that most of these habitats would be affected. We found that various biological factors were significantly related to the density of Abies nephrolepis (diameter at breast height, DBH ≥ 6 cm) and young tree density (stems/ha). We confirmed that species diversity and rock exposure variables had a relatively high impact. Clarifying the relationship between the density of Abies nephrolepis and various environmental factors can provide new insights for setting future restoration directions.

Impact of Environmental Exposure on Chronic Diseases in China and Assessment of Population Health Vulnerability

Although numerous epidemiological studies have demonstrated a relationship between environmental factors and chronic diseases, there is a lack of comprehensive population health vulnerability assessment studies from the perspective of environmental exposure, population sensitivity and adaptation on a regional scale. To address this gap, this study focused on six high-mortality chronic diseases in China and constructed an exposure–sensitivity–adaptability framework-based index system using multivariate data. The constructed system effectively estimated health vulnerability for the chronic diseases. The R-square between vulnerability and mortality rates for respiratory diseases and malignant tumors exceeded 0.7 and was around 0.6 for the other four chronic diseases. In 2020, Chongqing exhibited the highest vulnerability to respiratory diseases. For heart diseases, vulnerability values exceeding 0.5 were observed mainly in northern and northeastern provinces. Vulnerability values above 0.5 were observed in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shandong and Liaoning for cerebrovascular diseases and malignant tumors. Shanghai had the highest vulnerability to endogenous metabolic diseases, and Tibet exhibited the highest vulnerability to digestive system diseases. The main related factor analysis results show that high temperature and humidity, severe temperature fluctuations, serious air pollution, high proportion of middle-aged and elderly population, as well as high consumption of aquatic products, red meat and eggs increased health vulnerability, while increasing per capita educational resources helped reduce vulnerability.

Integrated HBIM-GIS Models for Multi-Scale Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Historical Buildings

The complexity of historical urban centres progressively needs a strategic improvement in methods and the scale of knowledge concerning the vulnerability aspect of seismic risk. A geographical multi-scale point of view is increasingly preferred in the scientific literature and in Italian regulation policies, that considers systemic behaviors of damage and vulnerability assessment from an urban perspective according to the scale of the data, rather than single building damage analysis. In this sense, a geospatial data sciences approach can contribute towards generating, integrating, and making virtuous relations between urban databases and emergency-related data, in order to constitute a multi-scale 3D database supporting strategies for conservation and risk assessment scenarios. The proposed approach developed a vulnerability-oriented GIS/HBIM integration in an urban 3D geodatabase, based on multi-scale data derived from urban cartography and emergency mapping 3D data. Integrated geometric and semantic information related to historical masonry buildings (specifically the churches) and structural data about architectural elements and damage were integrated in the approach. This contribution aimed to answer the research question supporting levels of knowledge required by directives and vulnerability assessment studies, both about the generative workflow phase, the role of HBIM models in GIS environments and toward user-oriented webGIS solutions for sharing and public use fruition, exploiting the database for expert operators involved in heritage preservation.

GIS-based seismic vulnerability assessment for the Istanbul Historical Peninsula

According to the Index of Risk Management-INFORM 2020 Report, Turkey was included in the group of “high-risk” countries in terms of humanitarian crises and disasters with an index score of 5.0 in 2019. In statistics related to the damage caused by disasters, it is known that natural disasters cause a 3% loss in Turkey's gross national product every year, and this rate approaches 4-5% with indirect losses. Since disasters cause socioeconomic, physical, and institutional losses, attention has been given to the importance of disaster management and risk reduction studies. This paper focuses on vulnerability assessments and presents a multi-criteria decision-making and earthquake-related vulnerability assessment method by using physical and socioeconomic parameters in the Historic Peninsula. A Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method was applied in this study because vulnerability assessments are complex and depend on many different criteria. Due to its flexible structure, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), which is one of the MCDM methods widely used in urban vulnerability assessment studies, was preferred and integrated with Geographic Information Systems. As a result of the study, it is found that approximately 49% of the district is at a moderate vulnerability level in terms of socioeconomic characteristics. For the structural characteristics, this rate is found to be at a high vulnerability level of 93%. The remaining 7% is moderately vulnerable. In this context, emphasis should be placed on identifying risky structures and strengthening and renovating them in the Historic Peninsula. The results of the method proposed in this study can be used as a basis for risk reduction studies. In addition, it can be a guide in pre-disaster risk reduction studies and can be integrated into city planning processes to keep disaster damage at minimum levels and predict the damage that may occur in settlements. The proposed method is a low-cost and short-term analysis that can be used, especially in public institutions that lack a technologically qualified workforce.

Vulnerability assessment studies on climate change: a review of the research in Mexico

Vulnerability assessment studies on climate change are a substantial tool for the implementation of adaptation strategies that allow us to know what threats systems and their components (species, natural resources, populations, territories, among others) do face on climate change conditions, what actions are caused by them that increase their own vulnerability, and what strategies are implemented to reduce this vulnerability. The popularity of this research at the international level has caused different discussions about methods, components, and variables. How does the vulnerability to climate change have been assessed in Mexico? The objective of this article is to present a review of vulnerability assessment studies on climate change in Mexico, paying particular attention to study subjects, concepts, components, methodologies, tools, and applications. The method consisted of a systematic search and review of articles published on international databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct, and Scielo). A total of 57 articles were reviewed. The results identify knowledge gaps in research of vulnerability on climate change in Mexico. The conclusions can be used as a guide to understand the theoretical-conceptual framework of vulnerability and to conduct future research on subjects and areas which are less studied in Mexico

Towards Efficient Assessment of Coastal Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise

Vulnerability is a compact term that represents an accumulative range of exposure, sensitivity and resilience of a system against both internal and external hazards. In light of this conceptual diagnosis, vulnerability assessment studies can measure the degree of a gap in which the system is vulnerable against various hazards by customizing a quantitative model while qualitative model studies indicate gap points. The results of quantitative models vary according to the adopted formula and the customized parameters. The study aims to improve the efficiency of the "coastal vulnerability index (CVI)" method which is used to assign degrees of coastal vulnerability to sea level rise (SLR). The study is using a comparative analytical approach to empirically assess the vulnerability of the African coast to SLR based on a selected group of physical and socioeconomic parameters (seventeen parameters). Although the first model, based on a formula of the square root of product mean and the second model, based on a formula of average of the square root of product sum, have a positive correlation with semistrong relation (+ 0.65), their results are varied. It is found that the first model is used when there is a dominant parameter in the study while the second model is used when there is an equality between parameter weights. Topography associated with proximity to the coast is a dominant factor when assessing the vulnerability of an area to SLR threat.

Economic vulnerability of small-scale coastal households to extreme weather events in Southern India

Various vulnerability assessment studies have revealed the effect of climate change and related extreme weather events on the small-scale fisheries households of coastal regions. However, hardly any study assesses the economic vulnerability of the poorest coastal households to extreme climatic events. The present study attempts to fill this gap by examining the economic vulnerability of deprived coastal households through a vulnerability assessment framework developed based on the IPCC approved strategy. A gender dimension is also brought to this study by assessing the households based on the household headship. A total of 120 male headed households and 30 female headed households from two coastal taluks of Thrissur district in Kerala, the Southwestern state of India, was selected for analysis. Female headed households emerged to be the most vulnerable group in all the three aspects considered – exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The study put forward suggestions to reduce the risks and improve the economic characteristics of poorest sections of the coastal households through women empowerment and policy intervention.

Vulnerability Assessment and Empirical Study of Urban Drainage Network Based on Coupling Analysis

The implementation of vulnerability assessment of urban drainage network is of great significance to improve the efficiency of urban waterlogging control. Based on the coupling perspective, the vulnerability assessment index system of urban drainage network is constructed from three dimensions of “exposure-sensitivity-adaptability”. Taking Tianjin as an example, the vulnerability of urban drainage network is empirically analyzed. The results show that reducing the exposure index and improving the sensitivity index and strain capacity of urban drainage network can effectively reduce the vulnerability of urban drainage network; According to the vulnerability of urban drainage networks, targeted prevention and control measures are taken.

Seismic Vulnerability Assessment Methodologies for Roadway Assets and Networks: A State-of-the-Art Review

Road networks are considered as one of the most important transport infrastructure systems, since they attain the economic and social prosperity of modern societies. For this reason, it is vital to improve the resiliency of road networks in order to function normally under daily stressors and recover quickly after natural disasters such as an earthquake event. In the last decades, vulnerability assessment studies for road networks and their assets gained great attention among the research community. This literature review includes a brief introduction about seismic vulnerability assessment, followed by the roadway assets damage and their damage states, and then the main typologies for the vulnerability assessment of roadway assets. Moreover, it focuses on available assessment methods, which were proposed to quantify the vulnerability of road networks and its assets. These methods are divided into two main categories, physical and traffic-based approaches. Methods based on fragility functions and vulnerability indexes were investigated in physical approach for roadways and its assets. On the other hand, accessibility and link importance index were explored in traffic-based approach for road networks. This paper reviews and comments the most common vulnerability assessment methods for road networks and its assets and points out their advantages and disadvantages. The main gaps and needs are identified and recommendations for future studies are provided.

Proposed Method and Framework for Evaluating and Calculating a Seismic Vulnerability Index of Malaysia

There are various constraints and challenges faced in conducting seismic vulnerability assessment studies in Malaysia due to key factors related to appropriate data availability, methods and frameworks. This paper would highlight on the proposed method and framework for assessing and calculating the seismic vulnerability index at district level for Malaysia condition. A set of vulnerability index indicators that incorporate exposure, resilience and capacity elements had been constructed to identify and evaluate local features that would contribute to the vulnerability of populations and properties to the occurrence of earthquakes. Specifically, a multivariate data analysis method would be performed to identify and assess the relative contribution (weightage value) of respective indicators and following with the use of Geographical Information System (GIS) technology to map and generate the spatial heterogeneity of total vulnerability index map and potential seismic vulnerability index map. Finally, the derived maps could provide preliminary information on the seismically vulnerable area classifications in order to improve the disaster mitigation and preparedness strategies by response disaster agencies.

Flood vulnerability and risk assessment of urban traditional buildings in a heritage district of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract. Flood hazard is increasing in frequency and magnitude in major South East Asian metropolitan areas due to fast urban development and changes in climate, threatening people's property and life. Typically, flood management actions are mostly focused on large-scale defences, such as river embankments or discharge channels or tunnels. However, these are difficult to implement in town centres without affecting the value of their heritage districts and might not provide sufficient mitigation. Therefore, urban heritage buildings may become vulnerable to flood events, even when they were originally designed and built with intrinsic resilient measures, based on the local knowledge of the natural environment and its threats at the time. Their aesthetic and cultural and economic values mean that they can represent a proportionally high contribution to losses in any event. Hence it is worth investigating more localized, tailored mitigation measures. Vulnerability assessment studies are essential to inform the feasibility and development of such strategies. In this study we propose a multilevel methodology to assess the flood vulnerability and risk of residential buildings in an area of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, characterized by traditional timber housing. The multiscale flood vulnerability model is based on a wide range of parameters, covering building-specific parameters, neighbourhood conditions and catchment area conditions. The obtained vulnerability index shows the ability to reflect different exposure by different building types and their relative locations. The vulnerability model is combined with high-resolution fluvial and pluvial flood maps providing scenario events with 0.1 % annual exceedance probability (AEP). A damage function of generic applicability is developed to compute the economic losses at individual building and sample levels. The study provides evidence that results obtained for a small district can be scaled up to the city level, to inform both generic and specific protection strategies.

Rethinking critical node problem for railway networks from the perspective of turn-back operation

Vulnerability assessment studies addressing the critical node problem for railway networks do not recognize the importance of turn-back operations as a typical reaction to disruption. The aim of this study is to explore the significance of turn-back operations during the process of identifying critical stations. This significance was quantified by comparing the results of critical stations (both with and without turn-back operations) in the Nagoya metro, Japan. The results indicate a large difference between critical stations identified with turn-back operations and those without. In addition, the criticality of stations without turn-backs tends to be underestimated. Our findings suggest that analysts and decision makers should rethink the critical node problem for railway networks from the perspective of turn-back operations.

A frequency-domain nonstationary multi-site rainfall generator for use in hydrological impact assessment

Growing concerns about the hydrological impacts of climate variability and climate change suggest an imperativeness to generate plausible climate scenarios suitable for the vulnerability assessment studies. A frequency-domain nonstationary framework for multi-site rainfall generation is proposed for decision-centric hydrological impact assessments. The framework has three main components: (1) a spatiotemporal rainfall field, described as spatial modes and their corresponding temporal evolution, based on empirical orthogonal function analysis (EOFA); (2) the time series of these spatial modes, decomposed into intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) with characteristic frequencies (periods) using the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT); and (3) Stochastic simulation (SS), achieved by assigning random phases to the noise IMFs in combination with adjustments both to the residual series and to the signal IMFs. A synthetic test function is first used to illustrate the power of the EHS (EOFA + HHT + SS) rainfall generator to detect and extract signals (e.g., nonstationary oscillation and trend component) from noisy data. A real application of the EHS model is then presented for the Xiang River basin to demonstrate its ability (reproducibility and adaptivity). The results showed that the EHS rainfall generator has sufficient capacity in reproducing the original spatiotemporal structure, such as the spatial correlation and low-frequency variability. Meanwhile, the EHS model exhibits advantages in terms of perturbing the distribution characteristics of rainfall and altering their behavior according to the intrinsic spatial patterns. These features give the EHS model high feasibility to act as a scenario generator for generating a wide range of possible rainfall scenarios reflecting different aspects of climate variability and climate change, and hence bolster the hydrological impact analysis in the climate change context.

Seismic vulnerability assessment of building stock of Malakand (Pakistan) using FEMA P-154 method

Earthquakes have caused huge infrastructural damages along with loss of lives in the recent past. Continuous subduction of the Indian plate beneath the Eurasian plate has made Pakistan a seismically active region in the world. Malakand, located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province of Pakistan, is declared at high earthquake risk by the National Disaster Management Authority of Pakistan, warranting a seismic vulnerability assessment study for its existing building stock. Vulnerability assessment of a representative sample of different building use-types was carried out using the rapid visual screening (RVS) procedure of FEMA P-154. The sample size was calculated based on Yamane formula. RVS sheets are used to calculate structural scores, and likely seismogenic damage is depicted as a function of damage grades of European Macro Seismic Scale. Of the building stock inspected, it was observed that almost half of the buildings fall in damage grade 4 and 5, implying a strong probability of heavy structural and non-structural damages in the case of future earthquake occurrence. Government school buildings were found to be less vulnerable than private counterparts. Most of the commercial buildings were not constructed according to building code, making them highly susceptible to damage. Based on the results of vulnerability assessment of building structures, the article recommends implementation of building codes which can lead to a decrease in infrastructural damages and economic losses in the wake of a future seismic event.