Supply system's technology configuration as a contributor to end-user vulnerability

Individuals requiring goods and services essential to their mode of living, are increasingly vulnerable to failures of the complex, interlinked, and inhomogeneous technological systems that supply those needs. Extant analysis techniques do not adequately quantify, from an end-user's perspective, the vulnerability that is contributed by such technological systems. This study explores the significance of inherent weaknesses of inhomogeneous technological systems and proposes an approach for measuring vulnerability as the individual end-user `exposure level' for each service. The measure of "exposure" that is developed, is mapped directly from the configuration of a technological system. This measure of exposure allows quantitative evaluation of existing configurations and proposed improvements to a technological system. The measure can therefore be used to determine which systems currently contribute most exposure to each individual, to identify the causes of that exposure, and to rank mitigation projects' effectiveness.