A system is robust if it can withstand an arbitrary damage. Conversely a system is vulnerable if any damage produces consequences which are disproportionate to that damage. A theory of structural vulnerability has been developed at the University of Bristol. It is a theory of form and connectivity the purpose of which is to identify the weak links within a structure. Recent work has lead to the generalization of the vulnerability theory to a wide range of systems which can be represented using a graph model consisting of links and nodes e.g. water pipe works and traffic flows. The theory is potentially of use for safety management and to reduce the risk of overlooking vulnerable failure scenarios.
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