Guizhou Plateau is a region in China that typically shows the contradictory human-earth system. A vulnerability assessment indicator system was constructed to explore the coupled human-natural system characteristic of the karst landform based on the grey correlation analysis mathematic model. The quantitative assessment results show that Qiandongnan and Tongren Districts belong to the slight de...

OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to delineate the relationship between noncancer pain and cognitive impairment with social vulnerability. DESIGN The study was designed as a cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Study of Health and Aging, 1996 wave. SETTING   Community-dwelling older adults in Canada. SUBJECTS 3,776 study participants. OUTCOME MEASURES Pain was categorized as...

Assessing and quantifying ecosystem vulnerability is a key issue in site-specific ecotoxicological risk assessment. In this paper, the concept of vulnerability, particularly referred to aquatic ecosystems is defined. Sensitivity to stressors, susceptibility for exposure and recovery capability are described as component of vulnerability of biological communities. The potential for habitat chang...

The main objective of vulnerability analysis is to select the alternative which is the least vulnerable. To make this selection, we must describe the vulnerability of each alternative by a single number then we will select the alternative with the smallest value of this vulnerability index. Usually, there are many aspects of vulnerability: vulnerability of a certain asset to a storm, to a terro...

We describe a quantitative methodology to characterize the vulnerability of U.S. urban centers to terrorist attack, using a place-based vulnerability index and a database of terrorist incidents and related human casualties. Via generalized linear statistical models, we study the relationships between vulnerability and terrorist events, and find that our place-based vulnerability metric signific...

Using the constituent elements of vulnerability, an evaluation index system for the ecological vulnerability of coastal areas under oil spill stress is established based on “Sensitivity–Adaptive Capacity-Exposure”. After selecting a gulf in China as the main case study in this work, the cluster analysis and reference method were applied in grading and value assigning for all indexes. In additio...

This paper focuses on the development of a method for road network vulnerability analysis, from the perspective of capacity degradation, which seeks to identify the critical infrastructures in the road network and the operational performance of the whole traffic system. This research involves defining the traffic utility index and modeling vulnerability of road segment, route, OD (Origin Destin...

Erosion is a major threat for coasts worldwide, beaches in particular, which constitute one of the most valuable coastal landforms. Vulnerability assessments related to beach erosion may contribute to planning measures to counteract erosion by identifying, quantifying and ranking vulnerability. Herein, we present a new index, the Beach Vulnerability Index (BVI), which combines simplicity in cal...