Systemic vulnerability is understood as a persistent, cross-scalar vulnerability core that predisposes systems to disproportionate failure under disturbance. It constitutes the latent structural substrate that conditions exposure, shapes chains of impact and enables cascading disruptions to unfold into system-wide outcomes.
Within the model, systemic vulnerability is not a static endpoint but a dynamic configuration of interconnected vulnerabilities across socio-ecological-technical dimensions. It evolves over time through hazard impacts, governance decisions and compounding events.
Systemic vulnerability core
A persistent set of structural conditions — economic, institutional, social and physical — that reduce a system’s capacity to absorb, adapt to and recover from disturbances, creating a predisposition to cascading failures.
Impact chains
Sequential chains of impacts that propagate from an initiating hazard through interconnected systems. The structure of an impact chain is determined by the interaction type activated (triggering, conditioning or feedback) and the topology of the system.