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The need for a target vulnerability quantification process arises from the U.S. Navys requirement to develop defensive systems to defend civilian and military assets around the world. The systems engineering approach has been applied to improve an existing process that takes too long to perform. The functions to perform the vulnerability assessment are identified, and an automated process incorporating current off-the-shelf technologies is discussed. The operational requirements, maintenance concept, and functional analysis are presented for the automated vulnerability quantification process. A conceptual design is then outlined for the system elements. A cost comparison between the current system and the automated system is calculated in the conceptual design. ; Master of Science

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to emphasise how vulnerability is not only "place-based" and to explore by example how vulnerability to hazards in England may comprise additional economic, social and psychological contributors to poverty. The mutuality of poverty and vulnerability is demonstrated, as are examples of susceptibility of the vulnerable to stigmatic disregard and cruelty.


Design/methodology/approach
– "Place-based" vulnerability is exemplified by coastal vulnerabilities and causes of their increase. Poverty and its causes are explained, followed by examples of possible contributors, indicators and consequences in incomes, living costs and debt; housing welfare and homelessness; food, nutrition, health and mental ill-health. Susceptibility to stigmatic behaviours exacerbate personal vulnerabilities.


Findings
– Dynamics of mutual inter-relationships between poverty and vulnerability are demonstrated. Behavioural responses to either condition by individuals and by society at large, to which those who are vulnerable or in poverty are susceptible, are described in the present and from history.


Research limitations/implications
– Findings form a "theoretical reality" upon which some measures may follow. An additional need is identified for long-term social field research to follow adults' and childrens' experiences, and consequences of poverty in vulnerable situations.


Practical implications
– Vulnerability accrues irrevocably between disasters, the results of which may be exposed by disaster impacts.


Social implications
– Recognition of linkages between economic and social vulnerability and disasters is essential for subsequent action to reduce the impact of disasters upon society.


Originality/value
– Though vulnerability has been explored for many years, the dynamics of its contributing processes require further explanation before their wider comprehension is achieved.

INTRODUCTION: Inhabiting vulnerability throughout the life course,- Section 1: Vulnerability as a multidimensional process. Spillovers across life domains -- Subjective well-being, family dynamics and vulnerability -- Positive and negative spillover effects: Managing multiple goals in middle adulthood -- How personal relationships affect employment outcomes: On the role of social networks and family obligations -- When mobility meets gender in the multidimensional transnational life course -- Intimate partner loss in later life -- Synthesis: Multidimensional perspective of vulnerability and life course -- Section 2: Vulnerability at the articulation of levels -- Social policies, vulnerability and the life course: A complex nexus -- Vulnerabilities in local contexts -- How family and other close ties shape vulnerability processes -- The many faces of social connectedness and their impact on well-being -- Vulnerability and health issues: Trajectories, experiences and meanings -- Synthesis: Multilevel studies on vulnerability processes -- Section 3: The unfolding of vulnerable life trajectories -- Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and health in the second half of life: The role of gender and welfare states in the life course of Europeans -- Ageing and reserves -- Vulnerabilities and psychological adjustment resources in career development -- On the sociohistorical construction of social and economic reserves across the life course and on their use in old age -- Life trajectories as products and determinants of social vulnerability -- Synthesis: Overcoming vulnerability? The constitution and activation of reserves throughout life trajectories -- Section 4: Combining methods to study vulnerability processes -- Life calendars for the collection of life course data -- Mixed method approaches for data collection in hard-to-reach populations -- Combining data collection modes in longitudinal studies -- Combining event history and sequence analysis to study vulnerability over the life course -- Joint longitudinal and survival models to study vulnerability processes -- Synthesis: Combining methods for the analysis of vulnerability processes across the life course -- Book conclusion -- CONCLUSION: Overcoming vulnerability in the life course: Reflections on a research program.

As a consequence of change in global climate, an increased frequency of natural hazards such as storm surges, tsunamis and cyclones, is predicted to have dramatic affects on the coastal communities and ecosystems by virtue of the devastation they cause during and after their occurrence. The tsunami of December 2004 and the Thane cyclone of 2011 caused extensive human and economic losses along the coastline of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu. The devastation caused by these events highlighted the need for vulnerability assessment to ensure better understanding of the elements causing different hazards and to consequently minimize the after- effects of the future events. This paper demonstrates an analytical hierarchical process (AHP)-based approach to coastal vulnerability studies as an improvement to the existing methodologies for vulnerability assessment. The paper also encourages the inclusion of socio-economic parameters along with the physical parameters to calculate the coastal vulnerability index using AHP-derived weights. Seven physical–geological parameters (slope, geomorphology, elevation, shoreline change, sea level rise, significant wave height and tidal range) and four socio-economic factors (population, land use/land cover (LU/LC), roads and location of tourist areas) are considered to measure the physical vulnerability index (PVI) as well as the socio-economic vulnerability index (SVI) of the Puducherry coast. Based on the weights and scores derived using AHP, vulnerability maps are prepared to demarcate areas with very low, medium and high vulnerability. A combination of PVI and SVI values are further utilized to compute the coastal vulnerability index (CVI). Finally, the various coastal segments are grouped into the 3 vulnerability classes to obtain the coastal vulnerability map. The entire coastal extent between Muthiapet and Kirumampakkam as well as the northern part of Kalapet is designated as the high vulnerability zone, which constitutes 50% of the coastline. The region between the southern coastal extent of Kalapet and Lawspet is the medium vulnerability zone and the remaining 25% is the low vulnerability zone. The results obtained enable the identification and prioritization of the more vulnerable areas of the region in order to further assist the government and the residing coastal communities in better coastal management and conservation.

In order to understand the population dynamics and the accompanying socio-demographic variables' trends, risks, and social vulnerability, one must have an understanding of the history and contemporary nature of the political economy of the region. The colonization of the Caribbean depended on the exploitation of suitable and abundant workforce to man the plantations which supplied the raw material manufactured from the lucrative mono-crop (sugar cane). Exploitation refers to the appropriation of the surplus of production over and above what the producers needed to reproduce and re-energize their bodies, so as to sustain their lives and the labour process. The traditional social system was emasculated with inequities which impacted mostly on the rapidly increasing population. The movement for independence sought political power so as to use the State as the lever to redress the inequities and to promote the social and economic development of the region. The assumption was that economic development would improve the material conditions of life for the majority of the people, mainly African and East Indians, thereby provide the basis for the social development of the societies of the region. The study has identified the impact the "brain drain" is having in some areas of economic development and at the same time, the important role Caribbean governments have to play in the formulation of education policies that will benefit the most vulnerable groups in Caribbean societies so that they can be able to improve their social and psychological living standards.

The Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna (GBM) basin presents a great flood risk. This book investigates autonomous adaptation using a multi-method technique comprising PRA and a questionnaire survey applied in the case study area 'Islampur' Upazila in Bangladesh.