Managing Technological Vulnerability of Urban Dwellers: Analysis, Trends, and Solutions

Urban dwellers are increasingly dependent on technological systems to supply goods and services essential for their way of life. Such dependence incurs vulnerability in situations when these goods and services are not available. The systems supplying these essentials are known to have many loci of failure. We consider the exposure of a technological system in terms of the number and type of loci of failure and present this as a metric of urban dweller vulnerability. Such a metric captures the vulnerability to the nonavailability of the specific goods or services provided by a particular technological system. By selecting from goods and services commonly required, this article identifies a representative range of essential goods and services provided to urban-dwelling individuals by technological systems, and examines the nature and extent of exposure associated with each system. Based upon the descriptions of these technological systems, this article classifies the contributors to each technological system's exposure into a small number of categories. The analysis allows the inference of generalized approaches for reducing each category of exposure, and hence vulnerability. Thus, a theory of exposure can be used to inform engineering management approaches applicable to end-user vulnerability reduction, and to identify the feasibility of less exposed technological systems.