Vulnerability

Vulnerability refers to the inability to withstand the effects of a hostile environment. A window of vulnerability (WoV) is a time frame within which defensive measures are reduced, compromised or lacking^{[citation needed]}

Common applications

In relation to hazards and disasters, vulnerability is a concept that links the relationship that people have with their environment to social forces and institutions and the cultural values that sustain and contest them. “The concept of vulnerability expresses the multidimensionality of disasters by focusing attention on the totality of relationships in a given social situation which constitute a condition that, in combination with environmental forces, produces a disaster”.

It's also the extent to which changes could harm a system, or to which a community can be affected by the impact of a hazard.

Research

Within the body of literature related to vulnerability, major research streams include questions of methodology, such as: measuring and assessing vulnerability, including finding appropriate indicators for various aspects of vulnerability, up- and downscaling methods, and participatory methods (Villagran 2006). Vulnerability research covers a complex, multidisciplinary field including development and poverty studies, public health, climate studies, security studies, engineering, geography, political ecology, and disaster and risk management. This research is of waste importance and interest for organizations trying to reduce vulnerability – especially as related to poverty and other Millennium Development Goals. Many institutions are conducting interdisciplinary research on vulnerability. A forum that brings many of the current researchers on vulnerability together is the Expert Working Group (EWG).1 Researchers are currently working to refine definitions of “vulnerability”, measurement and assessment methods, and effective communication of research to decision makers (Birkmann et al. 2006).

A sub-category of vulnerability research is social vulnerability, where increasingly researchers are addressing some of the problems of complex human interactions, vulnerability of specific groups of people, and the impact of shocks from natural hazards, climate change, and other kinds of disruptions upon the human community. The importance of the issue is indicated by the establishment of endowed chairs at university departments to examine social vulnerability.

Types

Social vulnerability

to the susceptibility of a person, group, society, sex or system to physical or emotional injury or attack. The term can also refer to a person who lets their guard down, leaving themselves open to censure or criticism. Vulnerability refers to a person's state of being liable to succumb to manipulation, persuasion, temptation etc.

Military vulnerability

In military terminology, vulnerability is a form of survivability, the others being susceptibility and recoverability. Vulnerability is defined in various ways depending on the nation and service arm concerned, but in general it refers to the near-instantaneous effects of a weapon attack. In aviation it is defined as the inability of an aircraft to withstand the damage caused by the man-made hostile environment. In some definitions, recoverability (damage control, firefighting, restoration of capability) is included in vulnerability. Some military services develop their own concept of vulnerability.

Vulnerabilities exploited by psychological manipulators

See Vulnerabilities exploited by manipulators

See also

• Gullibility
• Social vulnerability
• Vulnerability in computing
• Vulnerability index

References

Sources

• Bankoff, Greg, George Frerks and Dorothea Hilhorst. 2004. Mapping Vulnerability. Sterling: Earthscan.
• Birkmann, Joern (editor). 2006. Measuring Vulnerability to Natural Hazards – Towards Disaster Resilient Societies. UNU Press.
• Thywissen, Katharina. 2006. “Components of Risk: A comparative glossary." SOURCE No. 2/2006. Bonn, Germany.
• Villagran, Juan Carlos. "“Vulnerability: A conceptual and methodological review." SOURCE. No. 2/2006. Bonn, Germany.

External links

• BUGTRAQ-VULNERABLE SITE TRACKER (vulnerability kinds)
• Community based vulnerability mapping in Búzi, Mozambique (GIS and Remote Sensing)
• MunichRe Foundation
• Satellite Vulnerability
• Security-Feeds.com (Keep an eye on major feeds concerning security alerts and vulnerabilities on a single page)
• Survivability/Lethality Analysis - US Army
• Top Computer Vulnerabilities
• United Nations University Institute of Environment and Human Security
• VULNERABILITY LABORATORY (Verified Vulnerability Research Project)