Climate Vulnerability Assessment

Lecture 02

Hazard, exposure and sensitivity: the three inputs

PublishedReading lectureWritten by Malika Ratnayake

Content

In the order a learner meets it. Each block is a separate thing to write, and their order is the lecture's argument.

  1. Block 1 · text

    Exposure is a location question

    Exposure asks only where people, assets and systems sit relative to the hazard - a school on a flood plain is exposed whether or not it ever floods. Confusing exposure with vulnerability is the most common error in a first assessment, and it inflates the apparent risk of well-protected places while hiding the real one.

  2. Block 2 · text

    Sensitivity is a condition, not a location

    Two schools on the same flood plain are not equally sensitive: one built on stilts with a raised generator room absorbs a flood the other cannot. Sensitivity records the physical and social condition that decides how much a given exposure actually hurts, and it is normally the hardest of the three inputs to find good data for.

Attached materials

What the learner downloads. Everything here comes off the shared library, so one file can serve six lectures and be replaced once.

  • District-level hazard layers

    Dataset · 480 KB · uploaded straight onto this lecture

    Not on a shelfRemove
  • Sensitivity indicator checklist

    Spreadsheet · 88 KB · uploaded straight onto this lecture

    Not on a shelfRemove

Lecture quiz

4 questions close this lecture. The pass mark is 70% and is set once for the whole platform. It also carries 3 written questions - a learner has to clear both to move on.

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70% to pass

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