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The concept of vulnerability in climate change literature is underpinned by numerous theoretical contributions across different disciplines leading to disparate understandings of what climate change vulnerability entails, as well as different methodological frameworks for assessment. This multiplicity of contributions helped not only to frame and shape different understandings of vulnerability but also to define the conceptual and analytical elements considered as critical in any climate change vulnerability assessment. The purpose of this paper is to review the literature on climate change vulnerability and explore and synthesize those conceptual and analytical aspects considered fundamental in a vulnerability assessment in climate change.

Drawing on existing literature on climate change vulnerability and vulnerability assessment frameworks, the paper provides a review of the conceptual elements regarded as critical in integrated assessments of climate change vulnerability to date.

A review of the existing literature identified nine critical elements in vulnerability assessments: the coupled human-environment system and place-based analysis; key components of vulnerability; multiple perturbations; scales of analysis; causal structures of vulnerability; engaging stakeholders; differential vulnerability; historical and prospective analysis; and dealing with uncertainty. The paper concludes by highlighting some of the remaining challenges and limitations for the development of integrated vulnerability assessment in climate change research.

The paper presents a synthesis that draws on existing literature on climate change vulnerability theory, as well as vulnerability assessment frameworks that attempt to apply those concepts in the assessment of climate change vulnerability.

This paper aims to present the “Vulnerability Sourcebook” methodology, a standardised framework for the assessment of climate vulnerability and risk in the context of adaptation planning. The Vulnerability Sourcebook has been developed for the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and has been applied in more than twenty countries worldwide.

It is based on a participative development of so-called climate impact chains, which are an analytical concept to better understand, systemise and prioritise the climate factors as well as environmental and socio-economic factors that drive climate related threats, vulnerabilities and risks in a specific system. Impact chains serve as the backbone for an operational climate vulnerability assessment with indicators based on quantitative approaches (data, models) combined with expert assessments. In this paper, the authors present the concept and applications of the original Vulnerability Sourcebook, published in 2015, which was based on the IPCC AR4 concept of climate vulnerability. In Section 6 of this paper, the authors report how this concept has been adapted to the current IPCC AR5 concept of climate risks.

The application of the Sourcebook is demonstrated in three case studies in Bolivia, Pakistan and Burundi. The results indicate that particularly the participative development of impact chains helped with generating a common picture on climate vulnerabilities and commitment for adaptation planning within a region. The mixed methods approach (considering quantitative and qualitative information) allows for a flexible application in different contexts. Challenges are mainly the availability of climate (change) and socio-economic data, as well as the transparency of value-based decisions in the process.

The Vulnerability Sourcebook offers a standardised framework for the assessment of climate vulnerability and risk in the context of adaptation planning.

This paper uses the GB/T20984-2007 multiplicative method to assess the information security risk of a typical digital library in compliance with the principle and thought of ISO 27000. The purpose of this paper is to testify the feasibility of this method and provide suggestions for improving information security of the digital library.

This paper adopts convenience sampling to select respondents. The assessment of assets is through analyzing digital library-related business and function through a questionnaire which collects data to determine asset types and the importance of asset attributes. The five-point Likert scale questionnaire method is used to identify the threat possibility and its influence on the assets. The 12 respondents include directors and senior network technicians from the editorial department, comic library, children’s library, counseling department and the learning promotion centre. Three different Guttman scale questionnaires, tool testing and on-site inspection are combined to identify and assess vulnerabilities. There were different Guttman scale questionnaires for management personnel, technical personnel and general librarian. In all, 15 management librarians, 7 technical librarians and 72 ordinary librarians answered the vulnerability questionnaire. On-site inspection was conducted on the basis of 11 control domains of ISO 27002. Vulnerabilities were scanned using remote security evaluation system NSFOCUS. The scanning covered ten IP sections and a total of 81 hosts.

Overall, 2,792 risk scores were obtained. Among them, 282 items (accounting for 10.1 per cent of the total) reached the high risk level; 2 (0.1 per cent) reached the very high risk level. High-risk items involved 26 threat types (accounting for 44.1 per cent of all threat types) and 13 vulnerability types (accounting for 22.1 per cent of all vulnerability types). The evaluation revealed that this digital library faces seven major hidden dangers in information security. The assessment results were well accepted by staff members of this digital library, which testified to the applicability of this method to a Chinese digital library.

This paper is only a case study of a typical Chinese digital library using a digital library information security assessment method. More case-based explorations are necessary to prove the feasibility of the assessing strategy proposed in this study.

Based on the findings of recent literature, the authors found that very few researchers have made efforts to develop methods for calculating the indicators for digital library information security risk assessment. On the basis of ISO 27000 and other related information security standards, this case study proposed an operable method of digital library information security risk assessment and used it to assess a the information security of a typical Chinese digital library. This study can offer insights for formulating a digital library information security risk assessment scale.

This chapter focusses on food systems' vulnerability. In a rapidly and unpredictably changing world, vulnerability of farming and food systems becomes a key issue. The conceptual bases for food vulnerability analysis and food vulnerability assessment are discussed in a systemic perspective with an eye to the transition approach (Geels, 2004) as a perspective capable to analyze how novelties can develop and influence the system capability to fulfil societal functions, and food and nutrition security in particular. A framework for assessing people's food vulnerability is presented together with a simple vulnerability model based on the three dimensions of exposure (the degree to which a system is likely to experience environmental or sociopolitical stress), sensitivity (the degree to which a system is modified or affected by perturbations) and adaptive capacity (the ability to evolve in order to accommodate environmental hazards or change) (Adger, 2006). Then, other sections are dedicated to discuss the general questions that should be answered by a vulnerability assessment exercise, and the specific challenges emerging when the assessment concerns a food system. These elements are then used in the Annex to this chapter as a base for the development of a detailed method based on seven distinct steps for conducting participatory assessments of the vulnerability of food systems.

This study aims to investigate the vulnerability of cold chain logistics through a comprehensive assessment and provide targeted control measures.

The index system of the cold chain vulnerability assessment was established with knowledge obtained from three different dimensions, namely, exposure, sensitivity and adaptability. The final index weight was determined through combination of the intuitionistic fuzzy (IF) entropy and compromise ratio approaches, followed by the comprehensive vulnerability assessment through the two-stage grey comprehensive measurement model. The feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method were verified by evaluation with SF, HNA, China Merchants and COFCO as target examples.

The results revealed that the most influential factors in the cold chain vulnerability problem were the temperature reaching the standard, as well as the storage and preservation levels; through their analysis combined with the overall cold chain vulnerability assessment, the targeted control measures were obtained.

Based on the research perspective of cold chain vulnerability assessment, a novel assessment model of cold chain logistics vulnerability was proposed, which is based on IF entropy two-stage grey comprehensive measurement. It provides more powerful theoretical support to improve the quality management of cold chain products.

The common implementation practices of modern industrial control systems (ICS) has left a window wide open to various security vulnerabilities. As the cyber-threat landscape continues to evolve, the ICS and their underlying architecture must be protected to withstand cyber-attacks. This study aims to review several ICS security assessment methodologies to identify an appropriate vulnerability assessment method for the ICS systems that examine both critical physical and cyber systems so as to protect the national critical infrastructure.

This paper reviews several ICS security assessment methodologies and explores whether the existing methodologies are indeed sufficient to meet the cyber security assessment exercise required to validate the security of electrical power control systems.

The study showed that most of the examined methodologies seem to concentrate on vulnerability identification and prioritisation techniques, whilst other security techniques received noticeably less attention. The study also showed that the least attention is devoted to patch management process due to the critical nature of the SCADA system. Additionally, this review portrayed that only two security assessment methodologies exhibited absolute fulfilment of all NERC-CIP security requirements, whilst the others only partially fulfilled the essential requirements.

This paper presents a review and a comparative analysis of several standard SCADA security assessment methodologies and guidelines published by internationally recognised bodies. In addition, it explores the adequacy of the existing methodologies in meeting cyber security assessment practices required for electrical power networks.

This paper aims to propose a collaborative approach toward an integrated vulnerability assessment to climate change in Germany that attempts to bridge the gap between scientific output and policy demand.

Conceptually, the approach follows the definition of vulnerability as used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, but it has modified this basic concept. It clearly distinguishes between three time slices (presence, near and remote future) not only regarding the change in the climatic conditions but also socio-economic development trends.

The paper concentrates on the selected methodological framework, the collaborative research design and those preliminary results of the nationwide vulnerability assessment that are transferable to other settings.

A Vulnerability Network (“Netzwerk Vulnerabilitaet”) emerged from an applied research project commissioned under the Adaptation Action Plan of the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety and the Federal Environment Agency. The assessment serves as evidence basis for the implementation of the German Adaptation Strategy. Thus, all relevant federal authorities and agencies are represented in the Vulnerability Network.

The approach is the first really integrative vulnerability assessment for the whole Germany, as it considers not only 16 sectors but also interconnections between these sectors and cumulative effects for three different time slices. Moreover, the normative component of the assessment was clearly separated from the analytic one. The Vulnerability Network as a whole has been responsible for all normative decisions to be taken during the assessment procedure thus ensuring a wide understanding and acceptance of commonly achieved results.

This paper aims to present a new framework for climate change vulnerability, impact and adaptation (VIA) assessment. Greater attention has been given in recent years to the importance of conducting climate change VIA assessment prior to, or as part of, climate change adaptation strategies and projects. A VIA assessment provides decision-makers and project developers with information on the location and causes of vulnerability based on local knowledge and scientific data, so that effective adaptation responses that are targeted and site-specific can be designed. A challenge facing practitioners in this field is the lack of clear methodologies or agreed frameworks on how to conduct a VIA assessment.

This paper presents a VIA methodological framework that has been developed through three sub-regional pilot assessments on vulnerability and impacts of climate change, as part of the Regional Gateway for Technology Transfer and Action on Climate Change in Latin America and The Caribbean.

While it is recognized that methodologies and tools may differ depending on the unique local context of the study area and sector under analysis, there are key components that every assessment needs to consider.

The framework proposed can assist practitioners to deliver outputs from VIAs that are holistic, and provide the most appropriate type of information required for effective, context-specific adaptation responses.

The purpose of this paper is to present a formal framework of vulnerability to climate change, to address the conceptual confusion around vulnerability and related concepts.

The framework was developed using the method of formalisation – making structure explicit. While mathematics as a precise and general language revealed common structures in a large number of vulnerability definitions and assessments, the framework is here presented by diagrams for a non‐mathematical audience.

Vulnerability, in ordinary language, is a measure of possible future harm. Scientific vulnerability definitions from the fields of climate change, poverty, and natural hazards share and refine this structure. While theoretical definitions remain vague, operational definitions, that is, methodologies for assessing vulnerability, occur in three distinct types: evaluate harm for projected future evolutions, evaluate the current capacity to reduce harm, or combine the two. The framework identifies a lack of systematic relationship between theoretical and operational definitions.

While much conceptual literature tries to clarify vulnerability, formalisation is a new method in this interdisciplinary field. The resulting framework is an analytical tool which supports clear communication: it helps when making assumptions explicit. The mismatch between theoretical and operational definitions is not made explicit in previous work.

Vulnerability studies are commonly used to inform planning, as cities and regions seek to build resilience to environmental hazards. In Shelby County, Tennessee, socioeconomic census tract data were mapped to identify the socially vulnerable population and places to underpin strategies in the Mid-South Regional Resilience Master Plan (RRMP). While this is an important step in identifying vulnerability in the county, this paper aims to enhance the local analysis through an integrated approach that considers both social factors and environmental hazards in assessing vulnerability.

This paper conducts a social vulnerability assessment by integrating a social vulnerability index with risk exposure analysis at the census tract level to identify the population and places vulnerable to riverine flooding in Shelby County.

The analysis reveals that social vulnerability assessments that do not relate socioeconomic factors to specific environmental hazards such as riverine flooding underestimate the population and places that are vulnerable. For Shelby County, this has the tendency to undermine the prioritization and effectiveness of strategies to build resilience to riverine flooding and can worsen preexisting marginalization.

This paper recommends integrated vulnerability assessments for each of the environmental hazards identified in the Mid-South RRMP to augment existing resilience efforts in the county.

This paper enhances the understanding of social vulnerability assessments by consolidating the need for integrated assessment frameworks as basis for resiliency planning.