Optimizing anti-terrorism resource allocation

Abstract

Since spring of 2002 we have been working on a methodology, decision model, and cognitive support system to aid with effective allocation of anti-terrorism (AT) resources at Marine Corps installations. The work has so far been focused on the military domain, but the model and the software tools developed to implement it are generalizable to a range of commercial and public-sector settings including industrial parks, corporate campuses, and civic facilities. The approach suggests that anti-terrorism decision makers determine mitigation project allocations using measures of facility priority and mitigation project utility as inputs to the allocation algorithm. The three-part hybrid resource allocation model presented here uses multi-criteria decision-making techniques to assess facility (e.g., building, hangar) priorities, a utility function to calculate antiterrorism project mitigation values (e.g., protective glazing, wall coatings, and stand-off barriers) and optimization techniques to determine resource allocations across multiple, competing AT mitigation projects. The model has been realized in a cognitive support system developed as a set of loosely coupled Web services. The approach, model, and cognitive support system have been evaluated using the cognitive walkthrough method with prospective system users in the field. In this paper we describe the domain, the problem space, the decision model, the cognitive support system and summary results of early model and system evaluations.