• KDI Journal of Economic Policy
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• v.45 no.3
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• pp.25-48
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• 2023

The current article has explored the effect of productive capacities (as defined by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and of structural economic vulnerability (as defined by the United Nations) on fiscal space volatility in developing countries. It relies on the definition and measure of fiscal space proposed by Aizenman and Jinjarak (2010; 2011) and Aizenman et al. (2019). To compute the indicator of fiscal space and hence that of fiscal space volatility, fiscal space is considered as the ratio of outstanding public debt to the 'de facto tax base', the latter being the number of years of tax revenues needed for a country to repay its debt. Results based on a sample of 116 countries from 2000 to 2018 have revealed that the enhancement of productive capacities is associated with lower fiscal space volatility, while higher structural economic vulnerability heightens fiscal space volatility. On another note, highly vulnerable countries tend to experience a higher negative effect of productive capacities on fiscal space volatility than relatively less vulnerable countries.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.323-335
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• 2017

A simplified framework for the probabilistic estimation of economic losses induced by the structural vulnerability in single-story and single-bay precast industrial buildings is presented. The simplifications introduced in the framework are oriented to the definition of an expeditious procedure adoptable by government agencies and insurance companies for preliminary risk assessment. The economic losses are evaluated considering seismic hazard, structural response, damage resulting from the structural vulnerability and only structural-vulnerability-induced e]conomic losses, i.e., structural repair or reconstruction costs (stock and flow costs) and content losses induced by structural collapse. The uncertainties associated with each step are accounted for via Monte Carlo simulations. The estimation results in a probabilistic description of the seismic risk of portal-like industrial buildings, expressed in terms of economic losses for each occurrence (i.e., seismic event) that owners (i.e., insured) and stakeholders can use to make risk management decisions. The outcome may also be useful for the definition of the insurance premiums and the evaluation of the risks and costs for the owner corresponding to the insurance industrial costs. A prototype of a precast concrete industrial building located in Mirandola, Italy, hit by the 2012 Emilia earthquake, is used as an example of the application of the procedure.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.365-375
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• 2017

Seismic risk management has two main technical aspects: to recommend the construction of high-performance buildings and other structures using earthquake-resistant designs or evaluate existing ones, and to prepare emergency plans using realistic seismic scenarios. An overview of seismic risk assessment methodologies in Croatia is provided with details regarding the components of the assessment procedures: hazard, vulnerability and exposure. For Croatia, hazard is presented with two maps and it is expressed in terms of the peak horizontal ground acceleration during an earthquake, with the return period of 95 or 475 years. A standard building typology catalogue for Croatia has not been prepared yet, but a database for the fourth largest city in Croatia is currently in its initial stage. Two methods for earthquake vulnerability assessment are applied and compared. The first is a relatively simple and fast analysis of potential seismic vulnerability proposed by Croatian researchers using damage index (DI) as a numerical value indicating the level of structural damage, while the second is the Macroseismic method.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.11-21
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• 2022

Drought occurs extensively over a long period and causes great socio-economic damage. Since drought risk consists of social, environmental, physical, and economic factors along with meteorological and hydrological factors, it is important to quantitatively identify their impacts on drought risk. This study investigated the relationship among drought hazard, vulnerability, response capacity, and risk in Chungcheongbuk-do using a structural equation model and evaluated their impacts on drought risk using Bayesian networks. We also performed sensitivity analysis to investigate how the factors change drought risk. Overall results showed that Chungju-si had the highest risk of drought. The risk was calculated as the largest even when the hazard and response capacity were changed. However, when the vulnerability was changed, Eumseong-gun had the greatest risk. The sensitivity analysis showed that Jeungpyeong-gun had the highest sensitivity, and Jecheon-si, Eumseong-gun, and Okcheon-gun had highest individual sensitivities with hazard, vulnerability, and response capacity, respectively. This study concluded that it is possible to identify impact factors on drought risk using regional characteristics, and to prepare appropriate drought countermeasures considering regional drought risk.

• Earthquakes and Structures
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.261-272
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• 2020

Recent severe earthquakes in and around the vital public places worldwide indicate the severe vulnerability of ground excitation to be assailed. Reducing the effect of seismic lateral load in structural design is an important conception. Essentially, seismic isolation is required to shield the superstructure in such a way that the building superstructure would not move when the ground is shaking. This study explores the effectiveness, design, and practical feasibility of base isolation systems to reduce seismic demands on buildings of varying elevations. Thus, static and dynamic analyses were conducted based on site-specific bi-directional earthquakes for base-isolated as well as fixed-based buildings. Remarkably, it was discovered that isolators used in low-rise to high-rise structures tend to significantly decrease the structural responses of seismic prone buildings. The higher allowable horizontal displacement induces structural flexibility and ensure good structural health of the building stories. Reinforcement from vertical and horizontal members can be reduced in significant amounts for BI buildings. Thus, although incorporating base isolators increases the initial outlay, it considerably diminishes the total structural cost.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.5
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• pp.145-154
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• 2020

The purpose of this study is to analyze how the problems caused by overtourism affect the quality of life of Jeju residents and their perceptions of the overtourism phenomenon by exploring related factors for future policy implications. In the research model, each independent factor related to tourists affects the quality of life of residents, and the mediation variable (QoL) ultimately agrees with overtourism. This study uses Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM), which is less influenced by the sample size. The research is based on 360 questionnaires. The test results showed that cultural factors affected the QoL statistically at 1% significance level, and economic factors were significant at 5%. The quality of life variable affects the agreement of overtourism (p-value 1% significance level). An indirect effect analysis on whether each independent factor affects the overtourism factor through the parameter of the QoL of the residents showed that the cultural factor at 5% level statistically affected it, and economic factors were significant at 10%. In conclusion, we recommend implementing both economic and cultural factors to reduce the negative perception of overtourism for the policy planning. Further research in multiple aspects should be continued to overcome the vulnerability of the Island destination tourism.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.18-37
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• 2024

This study examines migrant workers' occupational health and safety issues through a case study of the UK construction industry, focusing on structural vulnerabilities. Migrant workers are at the bottom of the hierarchically fragmented labour market, performing outsourced hazardous work. Structural vulnerability focuses on the social structures that create hierarchies and increase risk in the workplace, rather than on individual responsibility or 'cultural' differences of migrant workers. The study considers the structural factors that perpetuate the migrantisation of risk in the UK construction industry, focusing on the structural necessity of low-wage migrant labour, precarious employment and the legal status of migrant workers, and discusses how these three factors interact to increase migrant workers' vulnerability to health and safety. The migrantisation of risk is not only a matter of occupational health and safety or universal workers' compensation, but also of the intertwining of labour migration policies with employment structures that rely on low-wage, low-skilled labour. This calls for proactive measures to address structural risks that go beyond passive declaratory policies that do not exclude migrant workers from education, training or legal systems.

• Journal of the Korea institute for structural maintenance and inspection
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• v.22 no.6
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• pp.138-147
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• 2018

With the recent series of damage caused by earthquakes in Korea, such as Gyeongju and Pohang, we know that Korea is no longer a safe zone for earthquakes and that we need to be prepared for them. In addition, bridges built prior to the introduction of seismic design concepts remain without adequate seismic reinforcement measures, and earthquake reinforcement should be performed efficiently considering economic and structural safety. Preliminary assessment of seismic performance of existing bridges is divided into four seismic groups, taking into account seismicity, vulnerability and Impact, considering the magnitude of the existing bridge's seismic, and prioritization for further evaluation of seismic performance. In this study, unlike the existing anti-seismic reinforcement priority method, scores are calculated based on the seismic design criteria applied to bridges, importance coefficient of the bridge including the zone coefficient and the Importance, vulnerability index of the bridge including the soil condition and the elapsed years, detail coefficient of the bridge including the superstructure form, the span length, the width, the height, the design load, and the daily traffic volume. The calculated score items will be weighted and grouped according to the results. Using this, a simpler and more efficient algorithm was proposed to determine the priority of seismic reinforcement on a bridge.

• Wind and Structures
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.603-621
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• 2014

Past high speed wind events have exposed the vulnerability of the roof systems of existing light-framed wood structures to uplift loading, contributing greatly to economic and human loss. This paper further investigates the behaviour of light-framed wood structures under the uplift loading of a realistic pressure distribution. A three-dimensional finite-element model is first developed to capture the behaviour of a recently completed full-scale experiment. After describing the components used to develop the numerical model, a comparison between the numerical prediction and experimental results in terms of the deflected shape at the roof-to-wall connections is presented to gain confidence in the numerical model. The model is then used to analyze the behaviour of the truss system under realistic and equivalent uniform pressure distributions and to perform an assessment of the use of the tributary area method to calculate the withdrawal force acting on the roof-to-wall connections.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.266-273
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• 2015

Keeping in mind that there are only limited social, economic and administrative resources for reducing marine casualties, the result of statistical survey showed the loopholes of safe maritime transport system, and rendered that most casualties occurred in coastal waters by human errors. When the IMO Marine Casualty Investigation Code was utilized to reveal any structural vulnerability of the international measures, IMO was required to expand its roles to enhance the interface between Liveware and Environment of SHEL model. So, several risk assessment models were studied and found that Maritime Safety Audit System of the Republic of Korea could be a good example of enhancing safe interface between navigators (Liveware) and the navigational circumstances (Environment). It could be dealt with at IMO level as a tool for applying at human error enforcing waters. International cooperative research for upgrading risk assessment modes should also be future terms of reference.