Summary

The preceding case studies are meant to help you think about sensitivity as a component of vulnerability. Sensitivity can be related to physical factors, such as age and quality of infrastructure, as in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and Florida mobile home examples, or it can be related to social factors, as in the Indian Ocean tsunami example. Although lessons from each of these examples are generalizable in the broad sense, it is important to think about vulnerability, including sensitivity, in a place-specific, localized manner. For example, issues related to mobile home sensitivity to hurricanes, although relevant in many parts of Florida, are not relevant to all places exposed to hurricanes. Likewise, many countries that are exposed to tsunami hazards either do not use nuclear energy or do not have any plants in tsunami hazard zones. In these places, the lessons of the Fukushima Daiichi disaster are only applicable in the generalized sense, i.e., that seawalls should be high enough to protect key resources from the highest waves likely to occur based on current science, and that critical resources requiring electrical power incorporate redundancy.