Pre-disaster damage predictions and post-disaster damage assessments are challenging because they result from complicated interactions between multiple drivers, including exposure to various hazards as well as differing levels of community resiliency. Certain societal characteristics, in particular, can greatly magnify the impact of a natural hazard, however they are frequently ignored in disaster management because they are difficult to incorporate into quantitative analyses. In order to more accurately identify areas of greatest need in the wake of a disaster, both the hazards and the vulnerabilities need to be carefully assessed since they have been shown to be positively correlated with damage patterns. This study evaluated the contribution of eight drivers of structural damage from Hurricane Mar'ia in Puerto Rico, leveraging machine learning algorithms to determine the role that societal factors played. Random Forest and Stochastic Gradient Boosting Trees algorithms analyzed a diverse set of data including wind, flooding, landslide, and vulnerability measures. These data trained models to predict the structural damage caused by Hurricane Mar'ia in Puerto Rico and the importance of each predictive feature was calculated. Results indicate that vulnerability measures are the leading predictors of damage in this case study, followed by wind, flood, and landslide measures. Each predictive variable exhibits unique, often nonlinear, relationships with damage. These results demonstrate that societal-driven vulnerabilities play critical roles in damage pattern analysis and that targeted, pre-disaster mitigation efforts should be enacted to reinforce household resiliency in socioeconomically vulnerable areas. Recovery programs may need to be reworked to focus on the highly impacted vulnerable populations to avoid the persistence, or potential enhancement, of preexisting social inequalities in the wake of a disaster. / Master of Science / Disasters are not entirely natural phenomena. Rather, they occur when natural hazards interact with the man-made environment and negatively impact society. Most risk and impact assessment studies focus on natural hazards (processes beyond human control) and do not incorporate the role of societal circumstances (within human agency). However, it has been shown that certain socioeconomic, demographic, and structural characteristics increase the severity of disaster impacts. These characteristics define the the susceptibility of a community to negative disaster impacts, known as vulnerability. This study quantifies the role of vulnerability via a case study of Hurricane Mar'ia. A variety of statistical modeling, known as machine learning, analyzed flood, wind, and landslide hazards along with the aforementioned vulnerabilities. These variables were correlated with a damage assessment database and the model calculated the strength of each variable's relationship with damage. Results indicate that vulnerability measures exhibit the strongest predictive correlations with the damage caused by Hurricane Mar'ia, followed by wind, flood, and landslide measures, respectively, suggesting that efforts to improve societal equality and improvements to infrastructure in vulnerable areas can mitigate the impacts of future hazardous events. In addition, societal information is critical to include in future risk and impact assessment efforts in order to prioritize areas of greatest need and allocate resources to those who would benefit from them most.

Do current landscape security practices provide sufficient protection to support building sustainability in the event of a terrorist attack? By exploring the relative effectiveness of current landscape security practices and methodologies, this thesis proposes to provide the landscape architect with sufficient background to define security objectives; participate in vulnerability assessments and design functional solutions while maintaining an open, aesthetically pleasing environment. This research thesis supports the study of site security as a discipline within the landscape architecture profession. Recent events have resulted in a rush to install various types of permanent and temporary security measures such as barriers, barricades, surveillance systems, etc., in the landscape. Typically, the placement of security components in the landscape has resulted in negative visible impacts on the environment, reinforcing an image of a siege, or fortress, mentality. This study will examine whether these security components, as currently employed, are effective deterrents against terrorist activities. This thesis will provide landscape architects with a broad understanding of security objectives and design options. Security objectives can only be met if the client, engineers, architects and landscape architects work together as a team. This thesis will provide the landscape architect with sufficient knowledge concerning security vulnerability, facility blast survivability, and emergency response capabilities to coordinate site security requirements with the design team. A thorough knowledge of security component capabilities and facility site vulnerability will assist the landscape architect in making design decisions which are both functional and aesthetic, while meeting security objectives. / Master of Landscape Architecture

Instalações industriais possuem uma ampla fonte de riscos. Por isso, o entendimento e gerenciamento destes adquirem grande importância para a garantia dos níveis de segurança. A temática vulnerabilidade é relevante na medida em que a relação do seu conceito ao de risco permite a contextualização deste último. A finalidade da avaliação da vulnerabilidade é descrever, dentro de um determinado contexto, a interação entre os riscos, a comunidade e o meio ambiente. Pesquisas deste tipo fornecem subsídios para o desenvolvimento de programas e estratégias de prevenção de riscos e promoção da saúde. Estudos que privilegiem a vulnerabilidade do entorno de plantas industriais ainda são escassos, porém de suma importância, pois os resultados visualizados na forma de mapas são úteis para a formulação de propostas e melhorias no gerenciamento dos riscos. Devido às características existentes nas áreas de entorno das plantas industriais no Brasil e, dada a gravidade e extensão dos danos que possíveis acidentes podem causar à saúde humana, a problemática da vulnerabilidade aos acidentes tecnológicos pode e deve ser encarada como um assunto pertinente para Saúde Pública, sendo esta área do conhecimento capaz de contribuir na formulação de estratégias de controle e prevenção de tais fatalidades. O objetivo dessa dissertação foi a aplicação do mapeamento da vulnerabilidade da área de entorno do distrito industrial do município de Paulínia e, então, a identificação dos alvos mais sensíveis à ocorrência de acidentes, a ponderação da viabilidade da aplicação deste para o contexto brasileiro e seu uso como instrumento de gestão de uso do solo no entorno de plantas industriais. A metodologia baseou-se em revisão da literatura, composição de base de dados e uso de um Sistema de Informação Geográfica. Os principais resultados indicaram valores elevados de vulnerabilidades para áreas que estão fora do limite destinado ao uso industrial, definido pelo zoneamento do município, principalmente no que diz respeito à vulnerabilidade humana. Por fim, concluiu-se que o planejamento territorial que leve em consideração a vulnerabilidade é fator primordial na redução dos danos ocasionados pelos acidentes tecnológicos, sobretudo no entorno de plantas industriais / Industrial facilities have a wide source of risk. Therefore, the understanding and management of them acquire great importance to guarantee the security levels. The vulnerability theme is relevant to the extent that its relationship with the risk concept allows the contextualization of the latter. The purpose of the vulnerability assessment is to describe, within a given context, the interaction between risks, the community and the environment. This kind of research provides subsidies for the development of programs and strategies for risk prevention and health promotion. Studies that emphasize the vulnerability of the surrounding areas of industrial plants are still scarce, but very important, because the results displayed in form of maps are useful to formulation of proposals and improvements in risk management. Due to the characteristics that are in the surrounding areas of industrial plants in Brazil and, considering the severity and extent of the damage that can cause possible injury to human health, the issue of vulnerability to technological accidents can and must be seen as a relevant subject to Public Health, and this area of knowledge can contribute to formulation of strategies for prevention and control of such fatalities. The purpose of this dissertation was the application of vulnerability mapping in the surrounding area of the industrial district at the Paulínia municipality and then, the identification of the more sensitivies targets to occurrence of accidents, the assessment of feasibility of applying this model to the Brazilian context and its use as a management tool in land use around plants. The methodology was based on a literature review, the composition of the database and the use of a Geographic Information System. The main results showed high vulnerability to areas outside limits for industrial use, defined by the municipality zoning, especially with regard to human vulnerability. Finally, it was concluded that territorial planning that takes into account the vulnerability is a key factor in reducing the damage caused by technological accidents, especially in surrounding areas of industrial plants

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No. of bitstreams: 1 bortoletto_kc_dr_rcla.pdf: 11170949 bytes, checksum: 7ea17b267f30ccc43e923963c28d068e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-12-15 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A presente pesquisa tem como área de estudo a cidade do município de Caraguatatuba (SP), que apresenta um histórico de desastres naturais e de comunidades que convivem em áreas de riscos de desastres naturais. Os estudos de vulnerabilidades social e ambiental têm se mostrado de grande importância na modelagem espacial de riscos de desastres. O objetiva dessa pesquisa foi apresentar a análise das vulnerabilidades social e ambiental integradas a mapas do meio físico, com o intuito de gerar mapas síntese de áreas de risco de desastres no município de Caraguatatuba SP por meio de SIG para dois cenários, 2000 e 2010. A base metodológica em Cutter (1996) e Mendes et al. (2009). Os resultados mostraram que os desastres relacionados aos processos de inundação, alagamento e deslizamento que ocorreram nos meses de janeiro, fevereiro, março, abril, outubro e dezembro e precipitação média mensal de 120 a 400mm. Os anos com maior número de afetados foram 2005 e 2013 com 109 e 331 afetados, respectivamente por processo hidrológico (inundação e alagamento). Os desastres relacionados aos processos geológicos (deslizamento) foram registrados nos anos de 2012, 2013 e 2015 e nos meses de janeiro, fevereiro, outubro e dezembro, apresentando um total de 54 pessoas atingidas. Os bairros envolvidos nos desastres, considerando-se as vulnerabilidades social e ambiental do ano 2010, foram: Olaria, Casa Branca, Perequê Mirim, Pegorelli, Travessão e Golfinho, inseridos na classe muito alta de vulnerabilidades social e ambiental. Os bairros Jaraguazinho e Barranco Alto estão na classe de vulnerabilidades social e ambiental alta. Esses bairros se localizam em áreas com características de urbanização precária e ocupadas por população com renda de até dois salários mínimos e incidência de população jovem. Na análise dos mapas sínteses de riscos de desastres na área urbana e na bacia do rio Santo Antônio, verifica-se que as áreas de risco alto e muito alto de desastres de deslizamento coincidem com as áreas de riscos existentes no município. As áreas com histórico de desastres de inundação alinham-se às áreas de riscos de inundação muito alto, alto e médio, decorrentes da análise multicritério desenvolvida nesta pesquisa. O estudo das vulnerabilidades social e ambiental e dos riscos propiciou a identificação de grupos vulneráveis e de indicadores socioambientais que contribuem para definição da vulnerabilidade das pessoas e dos lugares frente aos riscos de desastres naturais. Pode-se concluir também que o uso de critérios relacionados à percepção de riscos de desastres, de forma a contemplar o desenvolvimento de ações de mitigação e ou de enfrentamento de desastres, entre os principais atores da sociedade civil - a população que vive em áreas de risco, representantes do poder público e da sociedade civil – permite delinear cenários compatíveis com a realidade do local e poderão servir para análise e futuras intervenções do poder público na gestão e no enfrentamento de riscos de desastres. O entendimento das causas de desastres relacionados às chuvas torna-se um desafio para pesquisadores e gestores públicos, pois as questões chaves englobam os aspectos físicos, sociais e ambientais, os quais atuam em diferentes níveis, tanto de influência quanto de correlação, tornando sua análise e busca de soluções, uma tarefa complexa. Além disso, como recomendação para trabalhos futuros, pretende-se desenvolver estudos no contexto da participação popular em estratégias de RRD e de resiliências da população em situação de riscos de desastres. / The present study has as its research area the city of Caraguatatuba (state of São Paulo), which presents a historical of natural disasters and communities living in areas of natural disaster risk. Social and environmental vulnerability studies have shown to be of great importance in the spatial modeling of disaster risks. The aim of this study was to present an analysis of social and environmental vulnerabilities integrated to maps of the physical environment, in order to generate maps of disaster risk areas in the city of Caraguatatuba by means of GIS for two scenarios, 2000 and 2010. The methodological basis is in Cutter (1996) and Mendes et al. (2009). The results showed that disasters related to hydrological (flooding) and geological (landslides) processes occurred in the months of January, February, March, April, October and December and the average monthly precipitation was between 120 and 400mm. The years with the highest numbers of affected were 2005 and 2013 with 109 and 331 affected respectively by hydrological processes (flooding). Disasters related to geological processes (landslides) were registered in the years of 2012, 2013 and 2015 and in the months of January, February, October and December, with a total of 54 people affected. Districts involved in the disasters, considering the social and environmental vulnerabilities of 2010, were: Olaria, Casa Branca, Perequê Mirim, Pegorelli, Travessão and Golfinho - all of those inserted in the very high social and environmental vulnerability class. The districts of Jaraguazinho and Barranco Alto are in the high social and environmental vulnerability class. Districts with very high and high vulnerability are located in areas with precarious urbanization characteristics and occupied by population with an income of up to two minimum wages and incidence of youth population. In the analysis of landslides and flooding risk synthesis maps in the urban area and the Santo Antônio river basin, it can be seen that the high and very high risk areas of landslide disasters coincide with the risk areas in the city. The areas with a history of flood disasters are aligned to the areas of very high, medium and high flood risks, resulting from the multicriteria analysis developed in this research. The study of social and environmental vulnerabilities and risks has led to the identification of vulnerable groups and socio-environmental indicators that contribute to the definition of the vulnerability of people and places to the risks of natural disasters. It can also be concluded that the use of criteria related to the perception of disaster risks, in order to consider the development of mitigation actions and/or disaster response, among the main actors of civil society - the population living in areas of risk, public and civil society representatives - allow the definition of scenarios that are compatible with the reality of the site and that can be used for analysis and future interventions by public authorities in the management and response of disaster risk. Understanding the causes of disasters related to rainfall is a challenge for researchers and public managers, because since the key issues involve physical, social and environmental, which act at different levels of both influence and correlation, making their analysis and search for solutions, a complex task. In addition, as a recommendation for future research, it is intended to develop studies in the context of popular participation in DRR strategies and resilience of the population in a situation of disaster risks. / CNPq: 165490/2014-4

Instalações industriais possuem uma ampla fonte de riscos. Por isso, o entendimento e gerenciamento destes adquirem grande importância para a garantia dos níveis de segurança. A temática vulnerabilidade é relevante na medida em que a relação do seu conceito ao de risco permite a contextualização deste último. A finalidade da avaliação da vulnerabilidade é descrever, dentro de um determinado contexto, a interação entre os riscos, a comunidade e o meio ambiente. Pesquisas deste tipo fornecem subsídios para o desenvolvimento de programas e estratégias de prevenção de riscos e promoção da saúde. Estudos que privilegiem a vulnerabilidade do entorno de plantas industriais ainda são escassos, porém de suma importância, pois os resultados visualizados na forma de mapas são úteis para a formulação de propostas e melhorias no gerenciamento dos riscos. Devido às características existentes nas áreas de entorno das plantas industriais no Brasil e, dada a gravidade e extensão dos danos que possíveis acidentes podem causar à saúde humana, a problemática da vulnerabilidade aos acidentes tecnológicos pode e deve ser encarada como um assunto pertinente para Saúde Pública, sendo esta área do conhecimento capaz de contribuir na formulação de estratégias de controle e prevenção de tais fatalidades. O objetivo dessa dissertação foi a aplicação do mapeamento da vulnerabilidade da área de entorno do distrito industrial do município de Paulínia e, então, a identificação dos alvos mais sensíveis à ocorrência de acidentes, a ponderação da viabilidade da aplicação deste para o contexto brasileiro e seu uso como instrumento de gestão de uso do solo no entorno de plantas industriais. A metodologia baseou-se em revisão da literatura, composição de base de dados e uso de um Sistema de Informação Geográfica. Os principais resultados indicaram valores elevados de vulnerabilidades para áreas que estão fora do limite destinado ao uso industrial, definido pelo zoneamento do município, principalmente no que diz respeito à vulnerabilidade humana. Por fim, concluiu-se que o planejamento territorial que leve em consideração a vulnerabilidade é fator primordial na redução dos danos ocasionados pelos acidentes tecnológicos, sobretudo no entorno de plantas industriais / Industrial facilities have a wide source of risk. Therefore, the understanding and management of them acquire great importance to guarantee the security levels. The vulnerability theme is relevant to the extent that its relationship with the risk concept allows the contextualization of the latter. The purpose of the vulnerability assessment is to describe, within a given context, the interaction between risks, the community and the environment. This kind of research provides subsidies for the development of programs and strategies for risk prevention and health promotion. Studies that emphasize the vulnerability of the surrounding areas of industrial plants are still scarce, but very important, because the results displayed in form of maps are useful to formulation of proposals and improvements in risk management. Due to the characteristics that are in the surrounding areas of industrial plants in Brazil and, considering the severity and extent of the damage that can cause possible injury to human health, the issue of vulnerability to technological accidents can and must be seen as a relevant subject to Public Health, and this area of knowledge can contribute to formulation of strategies for prevention and control of such fatalities. The purpose of this dissertation was the application of vulnerability mapping in the surrounding area of the industrial district at the Paulínia municipality and then, the identification of the more sensitivies targets to occurrence of accidents, the assessment of feasibility of applying this model to the Brazilian context and its use as a management tool in land use around plants. The methodology was based on a literature review, the composition of the database and the use of a Geographic Information System. The main results showed high vulnerability to areas outside limits for industrial use, defined by the municipality zoning, especially with regard to human vulnerability. Finally, it was concluded that territorial planning that takes into account the vulnerability is a key factor in reducing the damage caused by technological accidents, especially in surrounding areas of industrial plants

O dimensionamento da tecnologia trouxe consequências indesejáveis para manter a taxa de crescimento exponencial e levanta questões importantes relacionadas com a confiabilidade e robustez dos sistemas eletrônicos. Atualmente, microprocessadores modernos de superpipeline normalmente contêm milhões de dispositivos com cargas nos nós cada vez menores. Esse fator faz com que os circuitos sejam mais sensíveis a variabilidade ambiental e aumenta a probabilidade de um erro transiente acontecer. Erros transientes em circuitos sequenciais ocorrem quando uma única partícula energizada deposita carga suficiente perto de uma região sensível. Flip-Flops mestreescravo são os circuitos sequencias mais utilizados em projeto VLSI para armazenamento de dados. Se um bit-flip ocorrer dentro deles, eles perdem a informação prévia armazenada e podem causar um funcionamento incorreto do sistema. A fim de proporcionar sistemas mais confiáveis que possam lidar com os efeitos da radiação, este trabalho analisa o Fator de Vulnerabilidade Temporal (Timing Vulnerability Factor - TVF) em algumas topologias de flip-flops mestre-escravo em estágios de pipeline sob diferentes condições de operação. A janela de tempo efetivo que o bit-flip ainda pode ser capturado pelo próximo estágio é definido com janela de vulnerabilidade (WOV). O TVF corresponde ao tempo que o flip-flop é vulnerável a erros transientes induzidos pela radiação de acordo com a WOV e a frequência de operação. A primeira etapa deste trabalho determina a dependência entre o TVF com a propagação de falhas até o próximo estágio através de uma lógica combinacional com diferentes atrasos de propagação e com diferentes modelos de tecnologia, incluindo também as versões de alto desempenho e baixo consumo. Todas as simulações foram feitas sob as condições normais pré-definidas nos arquivos de tecnologia. Como a variabilidade se manifesta com o aumento ou diminuição das especificações iniciais, onde o principal problema é a incerteza sobre o valor armazenado em circuitos sequenciais, a segunda etapa deste trabalho consiste em avaliar o impacto que os efeitos da variabilidade ambiental causam no TVF. Algumas simulações foram refeitas considerando variações na tensão de alimentação e na temperatura em diferentes topologias e configurações de flip-flops mestre-escravo. Para encontrar os melhores resultados, é necessário tentar diminuir os valores de TVF, pois isso significa que eles serão menos vulneráveis a bit-flips. Atrasos de propagação entre dois circuitos sequenciais e frequências de operação mais altas ajudam a reduzir o TVF. Além disso, estas informações podem ser facilmente integradas em ferramentas de EDA para ajudar a identificar os flip-flops mestre-escravo mais vulneráveis antes de mitigar ou substituí-los por aqueles tolerantes a radiação. / Technology scaling has brought undesirable issues to maintain the exponential growth rate and it raises important topics related to reliability and robustness of electronic systems. Currently, modern super pipelined microprocessors typically contain many millions of devices with ever decreasing load capacitances. This factor makes circuits more sensitive to environmental variations and it is increased the probability to induce a soft error. Soft errors in sequential circuits occur when a single energetic particle deposits enough charge near a sensitive node. Master-slave flip-flops are the most adopted sequential elements to work as registers in pipeline and finite state machines. If a bit-flip happens inside them, they lose the previous stored information and may cause an incorrect system operation. To provide reliable systems that can cope with radiation effects, this work analysis the Timing Vulnerability Factor (TVF) of some master-slave D flip-flops topologies in pipeline stages under different operating conditions. The effective time window, which the bit-flip can still be captured by the next stage, is defined as Window of Vulnerability (WOV). TVF corresponds to the time that a flip-flop is vulnerable to radiation-induced soft errors according to WOV and clock frequency. In the first step of this work, it is determined the dependence between the TVF with the fault propagation to the next stage through a combinational logic with different propagation delays and with different nanometer technological models, including also high performance and low power versions. All these simulations were made under the pre-defined nominal conditions in technology files. The variability manifests with an increase or decreases to initial specification, where the main problem is the uncertainty about the value stored in sequential. In this way, the second step of this work evaluates the impact that environmental variability effect causes in TVF. Some simulations were redone considering supply voltage and temperature variations in different master-slave D flip-flop topologies configurations. To achieve better results, it is necessary to try to decrease the TVF values to reduce the vulnerability to bit-flips. The propagation delay between two sequential elements and higher clock frequencies collaborates to reduce TVF values. Moreover, all the information can be easily integrated into Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools to help identifying the most vulnerable master-slave flip-flops before mitigating or replacing them by radiation hardened ones.

<p>Vulnerabilities discovered in software are not only due to programming errors but also due to designflaws. There are a number of methods to avoid design flaws which are all manual processes and needexpertise. We believe that the study of models of classes of vulnerabilities would give developerssufficient knowledge in how to avoid these vulnerabilities. A model of class of vulnerability can alsohelp in the decision making process during the software development process.In this thesis, we present a procedure for modeling a class of vulnerabilities given instances ofVulnerability Cause Graphs (VCGs). Using VCGs will structure the representation of causes tovulnerabilities.The approach presented in this thesis makes it possible to divide the work of modeling a class ofvulnerability without any permanent dependence on any specific persons. The approach is also flexible enough to accommodate new causes of vulnerabilities in software when being discovered.</p>

In this thesis, security measures and vulnerability mitigation are mainly addressed. How to improve the system vulnerability is one of the main issues for power system operation and planning. Recent research revealed that Energy Storage Systems (ESSs) have a great potential to be used to improve system vulnerability. A vulnerability assessment is proposed in this thesis to identify the impact factors in the power systems due to generation outage and line outage. A Bus Impact Severity (BIS) analysis is then proposed and used to find the vulnerable buses in the system. The buses with the larger BIS value defined in this thesis are the better locations for ESSs placement. Formulations for optimal locations and capacities of ESSs placement are derived and then solved by Genetic Algorithm (GA). Test results show that the proposed method can be used to find the optimal locations and capacities for ESSs for system vulnerability improvement.

¡@¡@The isolation, separation, and self-contained characteristics of island environ-ments form the unique systems of ecology, culture, and landscape. Simultaneously, characteristics such as a lack of available area, high population density, and depend-ence on imports cause high vulnerability and low resilience in these isolated islands. There are 11 islands around Taiwan. Penghu is one of the islands in this area with the highest density. Under the impact of climate change, the vulnerability and the adapta-tion of the island¡¦s city may be affected. Therefore, Makung City served as a base for this study, which uses field observations and the collection of relevant literature, fol-lowed by spatial analysis methods and vulnerability assessment model analysis to de-termine the vulnerability of Magong City. The study¡¦s results and recommendations could provide a basis for policy on the island with respect to spatial planning and management. ¡@¡@To determine the sources of vulnerability on the island, vulnerability indicators can distinguish between the environment and society. However, up to now, we have not considered the difference between the islands near Taiwan. Therefore, the gov-ernment could not provide basic data to assess vulnerability. However, according to the limiting data of the vulnerability assessment results, the neighborhoods near the Makung port are in a high vulnerability area. If climate change continues with a sea level rise and storm surges, it may impact buildings near the coastal area of Makung City. In this study, the weight of vulnerability indicators was built by equal concep-tion to analyze the island¡¦s vulnerability wholly. Therefore, vulnerability research could try to build weight of island vulnerability in the future.

Objective: The primary goal of this research is to identify social vulnerability and resilience to earthquake hazards within the Capital Regional District (CRD) and to generate recommendations for how the provincial health system and various local and regional government agencies can support the continued enhancement of disaster-resilient communities. Methods: Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were employed to evaluate social vulnerability and resilience. Quantitatively, the methodology developed by Cutter et al., was replicated to create a Social Vulnerability Index (SoVI). These data were supported by qualitative data obtained from focus group interviews in three communities in the CRD. Together, this mixed methods approach provided additional insights into the dimensions of social vulnerability, and resilience within the CRD. Results. From the SoVI, twenty-five census tracts (CTs) within the CRD exhibited ‘high social vulnerability’. These highly vulnerable CTs were most likely to be in more densely populated areas, whether they were in inner city neighbourhoods or suburbs of the City. The qualitative results suggest that a large scale seismic hazard will present substantial challenges for the CRD. The smaller, rural and remote communities of Sooke and Port Renfrew appeared to be more interested in emergency preparation than those in the City of Victoria, if judged by their participation rates. Conclusion. The information collected from research participants and the generation of the SoVI complements existing hazard maps and local knowledge well. Both have their place as tools for enhancing understanding of risk-assessment for the area. / Graduate