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Methods for the Characterization of the Vulnerability of Elements at Risk

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Part of the book series: Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research ((NTHR,volume 34))

Abstract

Risk assessment is the process of determining the likelihood or threat of a damage, injury, liability, loss, or other negative occurrence that is caused by external or internal vulnerabilities and that may be neutralized through preventive action. More precisely, risk assessment is the systematic prospective analysis aimed at defining, as quantitatively as possible, the potential loss of life, personal injury, economic loss, and property damage resulting from natural and/or anthropogenic hazards, by assessing the exposure and vulnerability of people and property to those hazards. The risk assessment procedure, developed in the Mountain Risks project, is based on the following five steps: (1) Identification and analysis of the specific types of hazards that could affect a territory and its community; (2) Definition of the spatial and temporal likelihood of the damaging events considered in the analysis as well as their magnitude; (3) Inventory of the assets and study of the social and economic features of the study areas; (4) Assessment of vulnerability, evaluating all the hazard consequences for each dimension composing the systems at risk (physical/functional, economic, socio-cultural, ecological/environmental and; political/institutional); (5) Evaluation of the prospective cost of damage or costs avoided through mitigation strategies. Vulnerability assessment plays a crucial role both in ‘translating’ the assessed level of hazard into an estimated level of risk and in providing leading information in mitigation planning processes and emergency management strategies. Under this perspective, it is really difficult, or even impossible, to address risk assessment without assessing vulnerability first and it appears unquestionable that a multi-disciplinary approach is required in vulnerability assessment studies. In this section, the different components (dimensions) of vulnerability are analyzed, both theoretically and practically, and then different methodological approaches, applications and solutions are provided.

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Abbreviations

C3L:

Concrete frame with unreinforced masonry infill walls

C1L:

Concrete moment frame

DBMS:

Database Management Systems

DI:

Damage Index

DHA:

Department of Humanitarian Affairs

DMTP:

Disaster Management Training Programme

ESPON:

European Spatial Planning Observation Network

FEMA:

Federal Emergency Management Agency

FOSM:

First-Order Second Moment

GIS:

Geographic Information Systems

HAZUS:

Hazards United States

IPCC:

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

IUGS:

International Union of Geological Sciences

ISTAT:

Italian Institute of Statistics

OMI:

Osservatorio del Mercato Immobiliare

PGA:

Peak Ground Acceleration

PGD:

Permanent Ground Deformation

PC2L:

Precast concrete frames with concrete shear walls

PC1:

Precast concrete tilt-up walls

QRA:

Quantitative Risk Assessment

RC:

Reinforced Concrete

C1:

Reinforced Concrete Moment Resisting Frames

RM2L:

Reinforced masonry retaining walls with precast concrete diaphragms

RM1L:

Reinforced masonry retaining walls with wood or metal deck diaphragms

RRC:

Relative recovery cost

SDOF:

Single Degree of Freedom

CapHaz-Net:

Social Capacity Building for Natural Hazards

SL:

Specific loss

S2L:

Steel braced frame

S5L:

Steel frame with unreinforced masonry infill walls

UNDP:

United Nations Development Programme

URML:

Unreinforced masonry bearing walls

W2:

Wood commercial and industrial

W1:

Wood light frame

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Sterlacchini, S. et al. (2014). Methods for the Characterization of the Vulnerability of Elements at Risk. In: Van Asch, T., Corominas, J., Greiving, S., Malet, JP., Sterlacchini, S. (eds) Mountain Risks: From Prediction to Management and Governance. Advances in Natural and Technological Hazards Research, vol 34. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6769-0_8

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