Landslide Vulnerability Assessment (LVAs): a Case Study From Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

DOI: 10.17014/ijog.4.1.49-59The topic on Landslide Vulnerability Assessment (LVAs) in Malaysia is relatively new and received little attention from geoscientists and engineers. This research paper tries to formulate the concept of LVAs by taking into account the science and socio-economic aspects. A new approach in vulnerability concept is also introduced herein. To achieve this goal, a framework was designed for assessing the LVAs. The framework was formulated semiquantitatively through the development of database for the risk elements (human and properties) based on information from secondary data (technical reports), extensive review of literature, and field observations. The vulnerability parameters included in assessing LVAs are 1) physical implication (building structures, internal materials, property damage, infrastructural facilities, and stabilization actions), 2) social status (injury, fatalities, safety, loss of accommodation, and public awareness), and 3) interference on environment (affected period, daily operation, and diversity). Each considered parameter in the vulnerability assessment is allocated with a certain index value ranges from 0 (0 % damage/victims/period), 0.25 (1 - 25% damage/victims/period), 0.50 (26 - 50% damage/victims/period), 0.75 (51 - 75% damage/victims/period), and 1.00 (75 - 100% damage/victims/period). All of these parameters are compiled and analyzed with “Landslide Distribution Map” (LDM) to generate a “Landslide Vulnerability Degree map (LVD)”. The LDM was produced based on field studies and satellite image interpretations in order to locate the landslide locations in the studied area. Finally, three types of physical, human, and environment vulnerabilities were then classified into five classes of vulnerabilities, namely: Class 1 (< 0.20): Very Low Vulnerability; Class 2 (0.21 - 0.40): Low Vulnerability; Class 3 (0.41 - 0.60): Medium Vulnerability; Class 4 (0.61 - 0.80): High Vulnerability); and Class 5 (> 0.81): Very High Vulnerability. Results from this study indicate that a further study is needed to the areas of high to very high vulnerability only. This LVAs approach is suitable as a guideline for preliminary development planning, controlling, and managing the landslide hazard /risk in the studied area and potentially to be extended with different background environments

Vulnerability Assessment of Settlements During Emergencies

During emergencies which occur as a result of uncontrolled effects of natural disasters, major technical and technological accidents and major epidemics of infectious diseases, the health and life of people and the persistent environmental degradation may be affected. Therefore, it is necessary to assess the vulnerability of the settlements from natural disasters and other accidents. The assessment must be professionally and scientifically established with a multidisciplinary approach. This paper defi nes methodology for vulnerability assessment of given populated areas during emergencies arising from uncontrolled effects of natural and other disasters which involves a complex analysis of actual hazard probabilities and the level of impact on humans, animals, property, cultural wealth, and the environment

Escrow: A large-scale web vulnerability assessment tool

The reliance on Web applications has increased rapidly over the years. At the same time, the quantity and impact of application security vulnerabilities have grown as well. Amongst these vulnerabilities, SQL Injection has been classified as the most common, dangerous and prevalent web application flaw. In this paper, we propose Escrow, a large-scale SQL Injection detection tool with an exploitation module that is light-weight, fast and platform-independent. Escrow uses a custom search implementation together with a static code analysis module to find potential target web applications. Additionally, it provides a simple to use graphical user interface (GUI) to navigate through a vulnerable remote database. Escrow is implementation-agnostic, i.e. It can perform analysis on any web application regardless of the server-side implementation (PHP, ASP, etc.). Using our tool, we discovered that it is indeed possible to identify and exploit at least 100 databases per 100 minutes, without prior knowledge of their underlying implementation. We observed that for each query sent, we can scan and detect dozens of vulnerable web applications in a short space of time, while providing a means for exploitation. Finally, we provide recommendations for developers to defend against SQL injection and emphasise the need for proactive assessment and defensive coding practices

Optical coherence tomography for vulnerability assessment of sandstone

Sandstone is an important cultural heritage material, in both architectural and natural settings, such as neolithic rock art panels. The majority of deterioration effects in porous materials such as sandstone are influenced by the presence and movement of water through the material. The presence of water within the porous network of a material results in changes in the optical coherence tomography signal intensity that can be used to monitor the wetting front of water penetration of dry porous materials at various depths. The technique is able to detect wetting front velocities from 1 cm s_1 to 10~6 cms-1, covering the full range of hydraulic conductivities likely to occur in natural sandstones from pervious to impervious. © 2013 Optical Society of America

Vulnerability assessment of urban building stock: a hierarchic approach

In the last decades the evaluation of the seismic risk are of rising concern, considered essential in the activity and definition of strategy planning and urban management. The evaluation of the seismic vulnerability of the existent building stock in the perspective of the seismic risk mitigation should not be placed only in relation to the isolated buildings of relevant historical and cultural importance, but also, in relation to the agglomerate of buildings in urban centres. The chronological construction process frequently results in characteristic heterogeneity of masonry and wall connection quality. In addition, buildings do not constitute independent units given that they share the mid-walls with adjacent buildings and the façade walls are aligned. This way, as post-seismic observations proved, buildings do not have an independent structural behaviour, but they interact amongst themselves, mainly for horizontal actions and so the structural performance should be studied at the level of the aggregate and not only for each isolated building. In most cases, for masonry structures there is no need for sophisticated dynamic analyses for seismic resistance verification or vulnerability assessment. This is even more relevant when an assessment at the level of a city centre is pursued. In this work, the results of evaluation of the vulnerability will be presented in accordance to three proposed methodologies based on a vulnerability index that consequently allows the evaluation of damage and creation of loss scenarios (economical and human) not only at the level of the building and its façade walls but also at the level of the aggregates. It will be discussed and evaluated the application of the referred methodologies and its integration in an SIG platform