Application of the human vulnerability approach to personnel and defence infrastructure

Due to present days' military out-of-area engagements and national `quality of life' awareness including medical consequences it is evident that part of the national attention and consideration is related to the reduction of expected casualties and fatalities.
Dealing with explosives and safety, the attention is commonly focussed on the prediction of lethality (fatalities), based on the use of probit functions. Considering military compounds, it is evident that from operational and safety point of view prediction of only the expected number of fatalities caused by accidental or intended ammunition and explosion effects is not sufficient to answer all questions dealing with the inherent safety, `recoverability', `survivability' or `sustainability' of the compound. As part of the international soldier modernization programs the survivability and sustainability of the (dis)mounted soldier is focussed on an integral personal protection against a wide spectrum of man made as well as environmental threats. In order to support the Dutch Ministry of Defence, TNO has defined an integral human vulnerability, protection and survivability research approach.
Therefore, part of TNO's research effort is focussed on the applicability of knowledge and methods between two historically different worlds, i.e. human vulnerability, protection and survivability and explosion and safety research.
This paper presents an example of our injury assessment method determining safety of personnel related to ammunition and explosion effects. Based on the Threat-Load-Injury model the development of injury criteria, tolerance levels and injury risk curves will be discussed and the use will be illustrated by a thermal radiation injury assessment.