Vulnerability Assessment as the name suggests is the process of recognizing, analyzing and ranking vulnerabilities in computers and other related systems to equip the IT personnel and management team with adequate knowledge about prevailing threats in the environment. A vulnerability assessment is the process of identifying, quantifying, and prioritizing (or ranking) the vulnerabilities in a system. Additional material provided by Daniel Kunches, Ph.D. student in Geography and HDNRE. 2217 Earth and Engineering Sciences Building, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802 Many of the health risks that are influenced by environment and climate change show gender differentials. For example, floods tend to occur in low-lying areas near water. Technology. Simply it’s a bit like measuring our body temperature as an indicator of our health. We've already seen one example of the role of wealth, in the comparison of Hurricane Katrina (wealthier area, fewer deaths, higher monetary damage) to Cyclone Nargis (poorer area, more deaths, less monetary damage). The John A. Dutton e-Education Institute is the learning design unit of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University. This increases our resilience to hazards. An example of the role of age is the 2003 European heat wave. An armed bank robber is an example of a threat. 3. However, these material disparities alone do not explain the greater losses experienced by people of color. Tsunami folklore 'saved islanders' by Subir Bhaumik for BBC News discusses how ancient, isolated tribes on Indian Ocean islands drew on their oral traditions to survive the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. USB thumb drives: Believe it or not, USB drives are actually one of, if not the most, common ways … Florida, on the other hand, doesn't have to bundle up so much in the winter, but it does face frequent hurricanes. Managing environmental health risks in emergencies. But other knowledge can help, too. Please adjust the settings to examine several graphs. Attack Complexity: Low ENVIRONMENTAL OPENNESS19. The risk of specific natural hazards varies widely from region to region. The refinement of indicators and search for more appropriate smart indicators is on-going. The severity of a disaster depends on both the physical nature of the extreme event and the social nature of the human populations affected by the event. Vulnerabilities in functionality added to a browser, e.g., libraries, plugins, extensions and add-ons, are treated as part of the browser when determining Attack Vector. The earthquake’s magnitude was about 9.2, making it one of the most powerful earthquakes ever. Are there other human factors that influence disaster severity? The vulnerability is a system weakness that can be exploited by a potential attacker. People’s personal experiences during disasters are uniquely conditioned by not one, but several intersecting identities. Provide visibility into the patch history of scanned systems and configured systems. Earthquakes and volcanoes tend to occur near boundaries of tectonic plates. Manhood is personified in those who leave behind safety. Histories of racial segregation and institutionalized discrimination in many countries have resulted in greater poverty rates and lower quality housing and services among people of color. Can these factors be integrated to disaster preparedness so that people can be better prepared and have faster and more efficient response to disasters? Since the government usually sets up same-sex shelters, trans individuals are not easily assigned to the appropriate shelter because government officials expect their gender identity to match their sex as stated in their IDs. Importantly, these intersecting human factors of vulnerability cannot be simply “added”—they are compounded in complex ways that are difficult to predict, but are revealed during the disaster. Physical vulnerability includes the difficulty in access to water resources, means of communications, hospitals, police stations, fire brigades, roads, bridges and exits of a building or/an area, in case of disasters. Publications Generally speaking, disasters are becoming less deadly but more costly. It seems that natural disasters are getting more costly perhaps because people are building more expensive infrastructure in hazard-prone areas. Some emergency response technologies do not meet the needs of people with disabilities. Education. Please send comments or suggestions on accessibility to the site editor. Governments can advance policies that reduce vulnerability. A vulnerability is that quality of a resource or its environment that allows the threat to be realized. The Pennsylvania State University © 2020, Credit: United States Geological Survey (, Environment and Society in a Changing World, These trends can be seen in graphs available online from. Compare that to Haiti after its 2010 earthquake. Environmental vulnerability has been characterised by three components or sub-indices. The term ‘smart indicators’ has been used to define EVI indicators which aim to capture a large number of elements in a complex interactive system while simultaneously showing how the value obtained relates to some ideal condition. Environmental vulnerability evaluates the potential impacts of events on the environment (flora, fauna, ecosystems, and biodiversity) (Birkmann, 2006). DEGRADATION28. A0001: Ability to identify systemic security issues based on the analysis of vulnerability and configuration data. Vulnerabilities help predict health problems and your risk for certain diseases or of public health emergencies and your associated risks. DRY PERIODS3. This is a vulnerability, as unscrupulous people can easily break the window and gain entry into your home. The concept of vulnerability has been used to describe the susceptibility of physical, biotic, and social systems to harm or hazard. Since losses vary geographically, over time, and among different social groups, vulnerability also varies over time and space. WASTE PRODUCTION39. Age. LAND AREA12. These sub-indices focus on ecosystem integrity and how it is threatened by anthropogenic and natural hazards. ISOLATION14. Helicopters were also used to distribute water. In addition, because many LGBTI individuals conceal their sexual identities in public to avoid harassment, loss of privacy due to the destruction of homes may result in additional stress. But there are exceptions. The poor are less able to afford housing and other infrastructure that can withstand extreme events. They are less able to purchase resources needed for disaster response and are less likely to have insurance policies that can contribute. BIOTECHNOLOGY34. The risk of specific natural hazards varies widely from region to region. A vulnerability analysis is a thorough process of defining, identifying, quantifying, and prioritizing (or ranking) the vulnerabilities in a system. Women often face additional burdens as caretakers of families. These people were not able to adapt to the extreme heat and had no one helping them out. Vulnerability. In addition, whiter neighborhoods received more volunteers than equally affected neighborhoods with more people of color. By characterizing these trends, we can understand who and what is vulnerable and in what ways they are vulnerable. VEGETATION COVER25. vulnerability of modern societies to attacks by non-state terrorist actors. Network Assessment:Identifying network security attacks. CONFLICTS, Measuring the resilience of our planetary life-support systems, EVI = Environmental vulnerability index Host Assessment: Server and host vulnerabilities are identified. Many of the world’s earthquakes and volcanoes occur along the edge of the Pacific Ocean, along the boundaries of the Pacific Plate. For example, some coastal areas contain expensive beachside real estate populated mainly by the rich, leaving the rich more vulnerable to tsunamis, storm surges, and other coastal hazards. Differential vulnerability & Susceptibility: expanding the scope of risk assessment . Vulnerability, threat, and breach are the three most important words when talking about system threats. Children, especially young children, have less education. This courseware module is part of Penn State's College of Earth and Mineral Sciences' OER Initiative. Database Assessment:Assessing database or identifying grey … A0120: Ability to share meaningful insights about the context of an organization’s threat environment that improve its risk management posture. One of the first concepts defined for environmental vulnerability was proposed within the ecotoxicological domain (Van Straalen, 1993), defined as the susceptibility of the natural environment … It’s valid to have anxiety about the unknown or have a fear of … IRI = Intrinsic Resilience sub-Index (Intrinsic resilience) ENDANGERED SPECIES23. Environmental conflicts, access to resources and women’s vulnerability There is acceptance that poverty and environmental degradation (an important aspect of several types of environmental conflicts) have disproportionate impacts on African women (especially those who reside in rural areas). FERTILISERS32. REI = Risk Exposure sub-Index SEA TEMPERATURES7. LOSS OF COVER26. POPULATION46. Each indicator is classified into a range of sub-indices including the three aspects of hazards; resistance and damage and into policy-relevant sub-indices including: Climate Change = CC | Biodiversity = CBD | Water = W | Agriculture and fisheries = AF | Human health aspects = HH | Desertification = CCD | Exposure to Natural disasters = D. Each indicator is also accompanied by a short form key name, detailed definition, keywords and a description of the main signals for which it is a proxy as well as the indicator’s policy relevance. Regardless of the nature of the threat, facility owners have a responsibility to limit or manage risks from these threats to the extent possible. Children and the elderly tend to be more vulnerable. In places where men are raised to be breadwinners, families prioritize boys’ education over girls’, thereby making women more likely to be poor and less educated than men. ENDEMICS21. The Sahel region (the southern edge of the Sahara desert in Africa) is periodically plagued by droughts. A lot of other technology was used in the response. For example, a young white, low-income man with a disability and a low-income elderly woman of color living in the same neighborhood may both be very vulnerable to a hurricane, but their experiences of vulnerability will certainly be quite distinct. Finally, they can foster social networks and empower individuals and communities to help themselves to prepare for and respond to hazards. Haiti, like Myanmar, is a poor country, but it has positive and close relationships with the international community and thus readily welcomed international assistance in the aftermath of the earthquake. This government is isolated from the international community and, thus, was not welcoming to international assistance in the aftermath of the cyclone. You can see that deaths are declining while the number of people affected is increasing over time, mainly due to population growth. Affiliations: 1. Response in environmental health emergencies. A vulnerability refers to a known weakness of an asset (resource) that can be exploited by one or more attackers. Many of the deaths were elderly people who were still capable of taking care of themselves. Finally, both children and the elderly have fewer financial resources and are frequently dependent on others for survival. MARINE RESERVES, 30. POPULATION GROWTH47. Some populations are more likely to face vulnerabilities than others. Intersectional approaches to vulnerability. These trends are due to characteristics of both natural systems and human systems. 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