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Vulnerability assessment methodology

Vulnerability Assessment (VA) requires a different approach according to the perturbation or stressor origin:

  • External stressors: Event-based Vulnerability (EVA)
  • Internal stressors: Structural Vulnerability (SVA)
Video: Event-based and structural vulnerability of a system

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Vulnerability assessment step-by-step

After defining the scope of the system (i.e. the services that the system should provide) we can assess the system vulnerability following these steps:

  1. identify the stressors,
  2. identify the exposure and sensitivity on the one hand and the adaptation measures and willingness to adapt on the other,
  3. identify the potential impacts that we could have (from the exposure and the sensitivity) and the adaptive capacity (from the adaptation measures and the willingness to adapt) of the system,
  4. aggregate the potential impacts and the adaptive capacity to the vulnerability index.

System vulnerability

The vulnerability of the system will depend on the potential impacts of the stressors and the adaptive capacity of the system. To which degree are the potential impacts and adaptive capacity related? Think about it and try to fill the table.